


Good Girls Don' t Fight (That Never Stopped Me)

by t_time



Category: Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Cobra Kai Dojo, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Extremely Slow Burn, F/M, Karate, Slow Burn, i probably don't know enough about the 80s to be writing this, this is very self serving
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 44,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27513505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_time/pseuds/t_time
Summary: “You both have this,” Ali paused, searching for the right words. “fighting spirit. Bobby told me about your run-in with the guy who called you a bitch at Golf N Stuff. How he had to hold you back so you wouldn’t clock him, sounds like something Johnny would do.” She mused darkly.Elizabeth swallowed, throat tight. When she spoke it came out strangled. “We arenotthe same.”--Elizabeth Nichols doesn’t like LA. She doesn’t like the traffic or the heat, and she especially does not like Johnny Lawrence, who seems to show up wherever she goes.
Relationships: Bobby Brown/Original Female Character(s), Daniel LaRusso/Ali Mills, Johnny Lawrence/Ali Mills, Johnny Lawrence/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 81
Kudos: 81





	1. No Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> A couple of things:  
> 1\. This starts in August of '83, so one year before the events of the movie, Ali and Johnny are still together etc  
> 2\. This is gonna probably be really slow burn lol  
> 3\. This is my first fanfic so please have mercy

Elizabeth had only been living in LA for a week when she stumbled across Cobra Kai. She had practiced karate back in Maine, and was looking for a new dojo to study at. Her mom refused to help her look (fighting was “unladylike” her mom insisted), so she was forced to ride her dinky old bike aimlessly around the Valley. (Her car was back in Maine, still waiting to be shipped to her) She was just about to give up (she had been biking for hours, her legs hurt, and LA was fucking hot) when she turned a corner and saw the sign.  
“Karate, Strike like a cobra” it read next to a huge black and yellow snake, a cobra, she guessed. A thrill went through her, suddenly she wasn’t so tired. If she could practice karate, maybe L.A. would suck a little less. She swung off her bike and and leaned it up against the wall.  
  
Elizabeth pushed open the door and stepped in, trying not to interrupt the class currently in full swing. There was a bench pushed up against the wall, so she sat on that, taking in the room. It was impressive. Opposite her, the length of the wall was covered in floor to ceiling mirrors. The wall next to that was lined with cases stuffed with trophies, no doubt this dojo was well decorated. They were winners. In the middle of it all at least 20 boys wearing white gis stood in neat lines facing the mirrors, all intense eyes as they warmed up. Intense eyes that suddenly swung to her as a man in a sleeveless black gi, their sensei probably, suddenly barked at her,  
  
“No girlfriends in practice,”  
  
“I’m sorry?” She asked, startled from her reverie.  
  
“We don’t allow girlfriends in the dojo during practice, you’ll have to ogle him another time,” A few of the boys snickered at that, and she suddenly felt embarrassed.  
  
“I’m not anyone’s girlfriend,” she said, standing up, “I’m looking for a dojo. I just moved here, and I wanna practice karate.” More of the guys laughed at this, staring at her as if she’d suddenly announced she was an alien or something.  
  
“There are no girls in Cobra Kai,” the sensei said dismissively.  
  
“I’m sorry, what?” She was incredulous. Sure, back in Maine she had gotten some sideways glances for being a girl that was so into fighting, but no one had openly dismissed her like this.  
  
“There are no girls in Cobra Kai,” he repeated slowly, as if she were being stupid. “They don’t fight. It’s not ladylike.” He smiled then, nastily, and turned back to the boys, who had still not broken formation. “Face front!”  
  
“Hold on, that is such bullshit!”  
  
“Excuse me?” He looked annoyed.  
  
“I already have my black belt, I’m a good fighter. I could beat any guy in here!” she insisted. He raised his eyebrows and stepped into her space, looming over her. She jutted out her chin and tried not to look as intimidated as she felt.  
  
“You think so, huh?” She wouldn’t break eye contact.  
  
“Yeah, I do.” His lips twitched, close to a smile.  
  
“Alright then, men, circle up!” He barked at the boys, who were gaping at her.  
  
They didn’t move.  
  
“Are you all deaf? Circle. Up. Now.” he ordered. They scrambled to do as he said, lining the mat and kneeling down.  
  
“Mr. Lawrence, step into the circle if you please.” The rest of the boys shuffled to fill his space as a boy stood up and stepped into the circle. He was tall, with unbelievable blonde hair, and a jaw that could cut glass.  
  
“If you think you’re so tough, you can fight my best student,” the blonde smirked at this, straightening his broad shoulders and puffing out his chest. “Beat him, and I’ll think about revising my rule.” The rest of the guys laughed at this, like there was no way she could possibly beat this tall pretty boy.  
  
She straightened her shoulders and looked at him, sizing him up. She could definitely take him.  
  
“Fine.”  
  
“Step on to the mat. And take your shoes off, disrespect has no place in this dojo.” She scoffed at this, as if he hadn’t been disrespecting her from the moment she stepped in here, but she took off her shoes. She strode over to the mat, the boys shuffled aside to let her on, then closed back off again, and she was facing Cobra Kai’s best student.  
“Face each other,” the sensei ordered. “Bow.”  
  
They bowed, and his gaze bore into her.  
  
_His eyes are really blue _, she thought. She was momentarily distracted, but then he smirked, and the spell broke.  
  
_Cocky ass. _  
  
“En garde.”  
  
She stepped into her fighting stance, one foot back, fists clenched, ready to strike.  
  
“Fight!”  
  
“Mr. Lawrence” didn’t wait, lunging into her space to strike. She blocked it easily, he’s going easy on me! And stepped into his space to strike hard. He barely blocked it, and eyes hardened as he began to fight for real. They fought hard for a while, exchanging blocks and blows. She’d never fought someone this good, he was ready for her every move, keeping on the offensive and forcing her to put all her energy into defense. Once, she knocked him down and he jumped right back up, no worse for wear.  
  
She was starting to get tired, and wondering if she had overstated her abilities. She didn’t want to lose and make a total ass of herself in front of all these people, but then he front kicked. It was too easy. She caught his leg with both hands and stepped in, sweeping the other leg and sending him tumbling to the ground.  
  
Elizabeth threw his leg down and grinned. She’d won. She took a deep breath and reached her hand out to him, ready to help him up since they were done with the fight, and he grinned. He took her hand and pulled, hard, sending her flying over his shoulder and onto her back. Then he punched her in the side, hard.  
  
She wheezed, all the air was knocked from her lungs.  
  
“Well done, Mr. Lawrence.” his sensei stepped onto the mat. Elizabeth scrambled to her feet, pissed.  
  
“What the hell was that?” Lawrence looked over his shoulder from where he was getting congratulated by his sensei, bored.  
  
“That was defeat, girlie, Mr. Lawrence did what you failed to do. He showed no mercy.”  
  
“He was on the ground. The fight was over, I won!”  
  
“No, it wasn’t. You showed mercy to your enemy. You were weak, and Mr. Lawrence used that weakness against you.”  
  
“So what because I won’t kick him while he’s down, I’m weak?” Elizabeth was shaking with rage, she’d never been this angry. Suddenly, the man in the black gi loomed over her.  
  
“What do we study here?” he yelled, and she started as all the boys around her yelled too.  
  
“The way of the fist, sir!”  
  
“And what is that way?”  
  
“Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy, sir!”  
  
She whipped her head around, they all looked so serious, they actually believed this bullshit.  
  
“You guys are cracked! I’m out of here.” She stormed out of the circle, barely stopping to grab her shoes and bag. As she left, she scoffed at the cardboard cut out of the sensei who was back to teaching his students as if nothing had happened.  
  
Once outside, she slipped her shoes back on and grabbed her bike, right where she’d left it. She stopped to spare one last look at the dojo before she left.  
  
“Strike like a cobra.”  
  
Such. Bullshit.____


	2. So, We Meet Again

When she got home, Elizabeth didn’t stop to say hi to her mom, she just stormed up to her room, sweaty and pissed off. She grabbed her walkman and flopped back onto her bed, cranking Van Halen up to ear-drum-bursting volume.  
  
She couldn’t believe how unfair it all was. First, she couldn’t join their stupid dojo just because she was a girl, then she could, but only if she beat their best student, who was a cheating shithead, on the mat. Fucking L.A. It sucked here.  
  
She lay there for a while, content to stew in her fury until her cassette ran out. She sat up and grabbed a new one, Led Zepplin IV, and lay back, staring at her stupid beige ceiling.  
  
She was pulled from her reverie when her mom burst into her room. “Elizabeth?”  
  
“Mom! Can you knock?” She pulled her headphones off, music still blaring out of them.  
  
“I did, several times, in fact, your music was too loud,” she indicated to the abandoned walkman, which she could hear from the door. She looked around her room and sighed, there were still boxes stacked haphazardly everywhere, some open, some not. “Have you even started unpacking yet?”  
  
So she just came in to gripe.  
  
“I have what I need out. I’ll get to the rest later,” Elizabeth was so not in the mood to have this fight right now.  
  
Mrs. Nichols sighed again, a favorite pastime of hers recently. “Well do you have any nice clothes out? Someone at your father’s company invited us to a country club dinner tonight, it’s black tie.”  
  
“Mom, I don’t wanna go to some stuffy dinner with a bunch of rich airheads,” She moaned, “Can’t I just stay home?”  
  
“No you can’t,” her mom said firmly, “And you will be on your best behavior tonight, if we make a good impression we could get a membership to this club.”  
  
“Big whoop,” she mumbled.  
  
“Do you have anything nice out or not?” Her mom leveled a heavy, don’t-fuck-with-me-right-now stare at her. Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to sigh.  
  
“No, it’s all buried.” She popped her head up, suddenly hopeful, “does that mean I can’t go?” Despite her annoyance, her mom laughed.  
  
“No, that means you either have to dig it out or go shopping. I’m about to go to the mall if you want to come. Just get washed up,” She wrinkled her nose, “You stink”  
  
“Mom!” Elizabeth laughed, bad mood quashed at the idea of going shopping. (What? A girl can like both fighting and shopping). She heaved herself up from the bed and ran to her attached bathroom.  
  
“Be ready in 30!” her mom called after her.  
  
After her shower she blow-dried her hair and got dressed, grabbing whatever was on top of open boxes. Cut-offs and a black Metallica shirt. She pulled her hair back with a scrunchie and ran downstairs.  
  
Once in the outrageously large foyer, she cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled. “MOOOOOM, LETS GOOOOOO.”  
  
“Goodness Elizabeth, please, have a little decorum.”  
  
“Sorry mom, just enjoying the big new house.” She slung an arm over her mom’s shoulders and walked with her to the car.  
  
\--  
  
Once they’d found a suitably stuffy dress for the dinner, Elizabeth’s mom set her free to do some shopping on her own.  
  
“Why don’t you get some school clothes? School starts in just a couple of weeks!” Like she needed reminding.  
  
It’s not like she didn’t have clothes, but they were packed up, and not suited for L.A. weather. Maine’s August was much cooler. Elizabeth was browsing the racks, looking for something that wasn’t completely atrocious (she didn’t mind girly clothes, but she put her foot down at frills and sequins), when she ran into some girl and knocked her over.  
  
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” she held out a hand to help the girl up.  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” the girl laughed as she stood up, brushing off her shirt.  
  
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry,”  
  
“I’m fine, just fine” She had an easy-going smile, “Hey, seriously, don’t worry about it.” She cocked her blonde head to the side. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before, are you from around here?”  
  
“Oh no, I just moved here. From Maine.”  
  
“Oh!” The girl perked up. “Welcome! I’m Ali, by the way, Ali Mills.” Ali held her hand out.  
  
“Elizabeth Nichols,” she shook it.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you, you shopping for school clothes?”  
  
“Yeah I start my junior year at West Valley High in a couple of weeks.  
  
“No way! Me too! We’ll have to hang out sometime.”  
  
Elizabeth relaxed at that, maybe when she started school she’d actually have a friend.  
  
“Well I should probably--” Ali cut her off.  
  
“Oh don’t go! My boyfriend and I were just about to meet up with some friends for lunch, you should totally join us!”  
  
“Your boyfriend?” Elizabeth didn’t see anyone else around them.  
  
“Yeah, he’s around here somewhere, probably bored out of his mind. He hates shopping,” Ali whispered conspiratorially.  
  
“I haven’t many guys that don’t” she laughed. Suddenly an oddly familiar blond head appeared.  
  
“Oh, Johnny! Over here! There’s someone you gotta meet,” Ali grabbed the boys arm and pulled him closer. “This is Elizabeth Nichols, she just moved here from Maine. She’s gonna be a junior with us at West Valley!”  
  
Elizabeth stopped cold as the boy looked up. It was the blue-eyed boy from Cobra Kai.


	3. And, Again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm shit at naming chapters

“Elizabeth? Are you ready to go yet?” Her mom called up the stairs to her. She sighed and stepped back from the mirror. Unfortunately, no amount of adjusting could make the sleeves any less puffy. The dress her mom had picked out was an emerald green, with big, puffy cap sleeves, a ruffled fitted bodice, and a bow in the back to top it all off. She looked ridiculous. Green was her color, according to her mom, but she still thought they could have found a dress with less… pomp.  
  
“I’ll be down in a minute!” she called, walking into her room to put on her shoes, which were— thankfully— bow and frill-free. Just plain black flats. Simple, the way she liked. Elizabeth grabbed her bag, a small black clutch to hold her lipstick and wallet. Content that she had everything she needed, she turned off her light and went downstairs.  
  
“Oh honey, you look just darling!” Her mom clasped her hands to her chest, thrilled to see her in something other than sweatpants or jean shorts probably. She tried not to roll her eyes.  
  
“Thanks, Mom. You look great too.” She really did. Her mom was wearing a simple cream-colored dress that stood nicely against her smooth tanned skin. Elizabeth had always been jealous of her mom’s skin, always effortlessly tan, even in northern winter, and clear too. Elizabeth had, much to her chagrin, inherited her father’s freckles, and she burned like crazy (another drawback to moving to the Sunny State). At least she had gotten her mom’s hair, dark, straight, and thick, her dad had started balding before she was even born.  
  
“Yes, yes, you ladies look wonderful. I’m pleased to be escorting two beautiful, _well-behaved_ girls to the club tonight.” Elizabeth didn’t miss the way her dad turned to look at her as he said well-behaved. She’d always been kind of a hothead, another genetic gift from her dad, and it got her in trouble more times than she could count. “Now let’s get going, before we wind up late, hm?”  
  
She followed obediently out to the car, awkwardly adjusting her dress as she slid into the backseat.  
  
“Honey I never got to ask you earlier, did you get any school clothes? I didn’t see any bags when we left.” Right. That.  
  
“Yeah, I just couldn’t find anything that suited me, maybe I’ll have to try later.” At a different store, with fewer blondes.  
  
“Well maybe if you took some more time. I mean you practically dragged me to the car.”  
  
“Yeah, maybe.”  
  
After Ali had introduced Johnny to her, Elizabeth had made up some flimsy excuse about needing to find her mom and bolted. Ali looked puzzled, eyes darting between Johnny and Elizabeth, trying to figure out the connection. She could feel his cocky smirk on her back as she retreated, and figured he would tell Ali all about the weirdo who came into his dojo, embarrassed herself on the mat, and left in a huff, and that would be the end of that. It was sad really. Ali had seemed so nice, and Elizabeth had been so excited about finally making a friend. But it’s whatever, L.A. was huge, there would certainly be other girls to befriend, right?  
  
\--  
  
They arrived at Encino Oaks Country Club, and Elizabeth found herself tugging at her dress as she walked, all fidgety with nerves. She expected a bunch of balding old men with their too young trophy wives; sure there were plenty of those, but there were also so many young people. People her mom would probably want her to be friends with. The ones with “good breeding.”  
  
The club was more or less the same as the one the Nichols had been members at back home. Same huge ballroom, same boring beige walls, even the same tablecloths. Someone caught her dad’s eye, and suddenly she was being pulled through the crowd, arm clutched in her mother's sharp nails.  
  
“Jim Nichols! How the hell are you?” An older man took her dad’s hand and shook it vigorously.  
  
“Fine, Sid, just fine. Here, I want you to meet my wife, Mary” he turned to her mom, guiding her forward to be appraised by the short, gruff-looking man in front of them. “Mary this is Sid Weinberg, my new boss.”  
  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Weinberg.” Her mother was the queen of good first impressions.  
  
“Yes, good to meet you too Mary. Call me Sid.” He ignored her outstretched hand, which Elizabeth thought was a little rude.  
  
“And this is our daughter, Elizabeth.” Now it was time for her to be guided forward, and she stood awkwardly under Sid’s scrutinizing gaze.  
  
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Weinberg.” She started to reach her hand out, but he wouldn't shake hers either. Just stood there and sized her up.  
  
“Now you’re pretty tall.” He turned to her dad. “She’s tall.”  
  
Elizabeth chuckled awkwardly as her dad patted her on the back.  
  
“Yeah, she takes after her aunt that way. She’s 5’9”.”  
  
“You play basketball any?” She hated it when people asked her that. No, she didn’t play basketball. Being tall didn’t make her good at basketball. No one said anything for a moment, then she realized it was her turn to speak.  
  
“Oh! Uh, no, not much. I do karate though,” she heard her mom sigh beside her. Whoops, forgot karate was unladylike.  
  
“Oh really? My step-son does that little karate thing. Likes to get dressed up in his pajamas and trot around barefoot on the mat.” Elizabeth bristled at him calling it a little karate thing, but she tried to stay polite.  
  
“Oh really? Cool.”  
  
“Sure, sure,” he was distracted, some blonde woman was walking up to him, his wife, Elizabeth guessed. She was awfully pretty.  
  
“Ah, Jim here. I want you to meet my wife, Laura. Laura, this is Jim, one of my new associates.”  
  
“Very nice to meet you, Jim,” she smiled and offered her hand.  
  
“Nice to meet you as well! This is Mary, and my daughter Elizabeth.” Laura turned to her.  
  
“Nice to meet you both! How are you liking California so far? Sid told me you all just moved here from Michigan?”  
  
“Well, Maine actually,” her mother politely corrected. “We’re liking it a lot.” Lie. At least, Elizabeth wasn’t. “Elizabeth is going to start at West Valley High in just a couple of weeks!”  
  
“Oh really?”  
  
“Yes, I’ll be a junior,” She said, shyly.  
  
“Oh! My son will be a junior this year! You two should meet.” Great. At this rate, she was gonna meet everyone in her class before school even started. “I know he’s around here somewhere,” Laura craned her neck to look around. “Oh! There he is! Johnny! Over here!”  
  
Johnny? Oh no.  
  
“There’s someone you need to meet!”  
  
_Please be a different Johnny. Who also happens to do karate. Please._  
  
“Alright, Johnny, this is Elizabeth Nichols, she’s gonna be a junior just like you!”  
  
_Shit._  
  
“Again?” She couldn’t stop the exasperation from tumbling out of her mouth. _When am I gonna get a break from this guy?_  
  
“Again?” Mrs. Weinberg turned to look at Johnny. Elizabeth’s mom glared at her. Not good manners.  
  
“Yeah we met earlier-” She jumped, this was the first time she’d heard Johnny speak.  
  
“At the mall!” She cut him off to try and keep him from saying anything embarrassing. “I ran into him and Ali at the mall earlier.” She glared daggers at him, she didn’t want to talk about that morning in front of her mom. As far as she knew, Elizabeth had gone for a long bike ride and then come home sweaty and tired.  
  
“Yeah,” he smirked, focusing the full force of those blue eyes on her, taking in her dress, which suddenly felt even more ridiculous than it had before. “We met at the mall.”  
  
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Her mom burst. “You didn’t tell me you were already making friends! It’s so good to know Elizabeth is falling in with the right crowd.” Johnny’s cocky smirk and turned into a full-on grin.  
  
“Yeah, I'm sure we’re all gonna be great friends.” Smug asshole. This was too much. She had to get away.  
  
“Excuse me, I need to, um, freshen up.” she mumbled.  
  
And then she bolted.  
  
\--  
  
She stumbled into the bathroom and put her hands on the sink to try and steady herself. Of course, Johnny fucking Lawrence would be the step-son of her dad’s new boss. Now not only had he gotten the best of her on the mat, he’d seen her in this stupid dress and knew that she was a friendless loser. She turned on the sink and briefly considered splashing her face with water to cool it off, but she remembered her makeup and ran her wrists under the frigid water instead. She’d just started to calm down a little when Ali walked into the bathroom. _Of course._  
  
“Elizabeth? I didn’t know your parents were members here!” Ali seemed excited to see her again, which was strange. Hadn’t Johnny told her about the Cobra Kai incident?  
  
“Oh, um, they’re actually not. My dad works for Mr. Weinberg, he invited us. But I think my parents applied to get a membership? I don’t really know how all of that works.” She turned to face Ali, leaning against the counter.  
  
“Oh, Mr. Weinberg is Johnny’s step-dad!”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, he just introduced us. Or reintroduced us I guess.” she awkwardly alluded to their time at the mall, hoping Ali would just drop it and move on.  
  
“Yeah, is everything alright with you? You just disappeared at the mall earlier.” So they were gonna talk about this. Wonderful.  
  
“Oh yeah, my mom had to get back to the house. We have all these workers coming and going as we get settled in, and mom doesn’t like to leave them alone for too long.”  
  
“It’s too bad, I would’ve really liked for you to join us at lunch.” She shrunk under Ali's gaze, feeling bad for disappointing her. But she didn't get it, seriously, did Johnny just not tell her about the dojo? There is no way she would be this friendly if she knew.  
  
“Yeah, maybe some other time though? You can show me all the cool places to hang out in the Valley.” As if that would ever happen, but she needed to get out of this bathroom, like, now.  
  
“Sure!” Ali beamed. And Elizabeth took off out of the bathroom, maybe she could find a janitor's closet to hide in or something.  
  
But of course, as she rushed down the hallway she bumped into Johnny. Again.  
  
“What are you following me around or something?” she exclaimed, so completely over this. Johnny scoffed.  
  
“You’re the one stalking me,” he insisted.  
  
“Stalking you?!” She laughed.  
  
“Yeah, you show up at my dojo, then you conveniently run into my girlfriend over at the mall, and now you happen to show up at my club.” He was ridiculous.  
  
“Your club?”  
  
“Yeah, my club. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you had a crush on me.” She wanted to smack that stupid smug look off his face.  
  
“As if I would ever like a cheating asshole like you.”  
  
“Cheating?” He stepped toward her, furious.  
  
“Yeah, cheating” She stepped forward too, he didn’t scare her one bit.  
  
“Guys, what’s going on?” Their attention snapped to Ali, who emerged from the bathroom, looking worried.  
  
“Your new best friend is certifiably nuts Ali, coming at me for no reason.” Johnny wrapped his arm around Ali, the absolute nerve of him to pretend she started all of this.  
  
“Elizabeth? What is he talking about?” Ali’s eyebrows furrowed, lost.  
  
“Oh, he’s just pouting because he embarrassed that I kicked his ass.” She spat.  
  
“Excuse me, but I seem to remember that you were the one on the mat holding your ribs,” He jeered.  
  
“After I had already floored you! If I had known about your bullshit no mercy rule, I would have had you in that fight.”  
  
“Oh yeah?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Well, why don’t we go right now, show me what you’re really made of, now that I’ve schooled you on what a real fight looks like.” He took his arm off of Ali and came at her again.  
  
“Oh you’re so on,” She threw her clutch down and stormed toward him, cap sleeves be damned, when Ali surged forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her back.  
  
“Come on guys, you are not about to fight in a country club.” She leveled Johnny with a look that stopped him cold in his tracks. Elizabeth started to laugh at this 6-foot black belt who was clearly scared of a girl who didn’t even come up to his chin, when Ali turned to glare at her, and she totally understood. That chick was scary “Now let’s get back to the table before anyone comes in to find two kids in formal wear about to throw down like they’re in The Octagon.”  
  
She had a point. Getting caught like this would definitely mean her parents would never get into this club, and then there’d be no way they’d pay for karate if she could ever find a sensei. Elizabeth sighed.  
  
“Fine,” she looked at Johnny. “Truce?” He scoffed.  
  
“Sure, truce.”  
  
“Great!” Ali said brightly, clapping her hands together. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving, and this place has the best spaghetti.” She looked at Elizabeth. “You’re gonna love it.”  
  
\--  
  
They somehow managed to make it all the way through dinner without jumping out of their seats to rip each other's faces off. It helped that they had an entire table and several plates of spaghetti between them, and also that they didn’t really get a chance to talk to each other. While their dads droned on and on about work, Johnny spent the night whispering into Ali’s ear, making her giggle, and Elizabeth spent the night trying to make shapes out of her spaghetti without her mom noticing.  
  
After the meal there was dancing, and Ali and Johnny left to sway and stare deeply into each other’s eyes. Blech. Elizabeth had no date, so she sat listening to boring shop talk until finally, finally, it was time to leave. She tried her best to hustle her parents out of there so she could go home and forget this awful day, but fate was against her, and Ali caught her just as she was about to leave.  
  
“Hey, Elizabeth, wait up!” Elizabeth turned, a pained smile on her face.  
  
“Hey, Ali.”  
  
“Look, I don’t fully understand whatever’s between you and Johnny, clearly there’s something he hasn’t told me.” She spared a look over her shoulder to the blond, sitting bored and alone at the table. “But I’d still like to hang out with you more, and I really want you to meet our friends. I think you could get along if you just gave it another shot. So, please?”  
  
“I don’t-”  
  
“Look, just one time. If it turns out you and Johnny really can’t be in the same space without drawing blood then I promise I’ll leave you alone, okay?” Elizabeth smiled.  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“Great! We’re going to Golf N Stuff tomorrow night, pick you up at 7?”  
  
“Sounds good. Um, I live at 325 Archer St.”  
  
“Oh, that's just down the street from Johnny!"  
  
Of course it was.  
  
And then Ali released her arm and walked over to Johnny, determined to find out what all the yelling in the hallway was about.  
  
Elizabeth sighed. She had a feeling she was going to have a hard time getting away from Johnny Lawrence. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Nichol's dresses:  
> Elizabeth's (but in green, not blue): https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/57/41/7e57413f4bc93ba7d2d03f610c06a627.jpg  
> Her Mom's: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0948/4576/files/article-2156484-13831B39000005DC-741_634x780_f77932b1-552b-434d-9577-f289f2aca933.jpg?v=1492698185
> 
> Trying to figure out how to add italics on this godforsaken website is the literal bane of my existence. If anyone has any tips pls lmk. 
> 
> Also, tell me what you think!! I'm really enjoying writing this, I keep using this to procrastinate on my work lol


	4. Golf N Stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back at it with the inventive chapter titles

“Damn it!” Elizabeth slammed her hairbrush on the counter. She had been working and reworking this stupid ponytail for 15 minutes. It just didn’t look right. She considered just leaving her hair down, but it was always hot in L.A. and her hair got really frizzy when she was overheated, so ponytails were her go-to until this stupid city finally cooled off.  
  
She was nervous. As nice as Ali was, L.A. girls were a different breed than Augusta girls. Back home, jeans, or jean shorts, and a t-shirt were fine for hanging out, but more than once she’d seen girls glammed up at the mall roll their eyes and whisper to each other as she passed, giggling. Elizabeth got the feeling Ali was popular. With that blonde hair, those blue eyes, and her perfect smile, there was no way she didn’t capture the attention of everyone at school. Elizabeth had never been particularly popular. Girls thought she was weird because her chosen sport was karate and not cheerleading.  
  
She sighed and picked up the brush one more time, determined to get this. Brush the hair back, ponytail holder, scrunchie, pull down a few framing hairs and… well, good enough. Grabbing her converse, she went downstairs and sat on the steps in the foyer to put them on. Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the door, interrupting the silence of her empty house. (Her parents had some work event tonight that kids, blessedly, were not invited to).  
  
She pulled open the door, expecting Ali, but was met with Johnny’s stony face instead. “Ali told me to pick you up,” he said, turning away almost immediately to walk to the car.  
“She’s not with you?” Elizabeth asked, pausing to lock the door.  
  
“Susan picked her up. She wanted me to get you because it was more convenient or something. Are you coming or not?” He suddenly turned back, unfairly irritated with her.  
  
“Jesus Christ, impatient much? I had to lock the door.” He scoffed and walked to the car even faster. Elizabeth ran after him, getting the feeling if he got to the car before she did he would just drive off without her. She wasn’t sure she’d try to stop him.  
  
“Who pissed in your cereal?” Elizabeth asked, unable to keep herself from poking the bear just a little.  
  
“Look I don’t wanna hang out with you ok? All of this was Ali’s bright idea. I’d be much happier if you would just fuck off and leave us alone.”  
  
“I don’t want this either, but I’m not just gonna blow Ali off.” She burst out. “What’s your problem with me anyway?”  
  
“You keep showing up everywhere and ruining my life!” He slammed the car door and jammed the keys into the ignition.  
  
“Ruining your life?” She hurried around the car and started to open the passenger side door when Johnny stopped her.  
  
“Get in the back.”  
  
“You’re not serious.”  
  
“I am! Get in the back, I’m picking up Bobby, he always sits in the front. Unless Ali is riding with me.” He could not be serious.  
  
“You seriously expect me to ride in the back with no one else in the car?”  
  
“Yes.” She huffed and hopped over the side of the car into the back seat.  
  
“There. Happy?” He twisted around to look at her, legs awkwardly twisted in the cramped space.  
  
“As a clam.” And peeled off just as she reached for her seatbelt.  
  
5 harrowing minutes later they pulled in front of another absurdly large house, and Johnny laid on the horn. A second later, a boy appeared and jogged toward the car. Johnny did not stop honking.  
  
“Christ man, can you keep it down? Mr. Edmon is gonna have a fit.” He did the awkward high five bro hug thing guys do and walked around to the passenger side. He started when he saw Elizabeth like he didn’t see her when he was running up to the car. “Who’s this?”  
  
Johnny didn’t even look back. “Some friend of Ali’s.” She scoffed.  
  
“Why is she sitting in the back?”  
  
Johnny shrugged. “She just sat there.”  
  
“I did not! You told me I had to sit back here because _Bobby _always sits in the front. You’re Bobby I’m guessing.” She said, sizing him up. He wasn’t bad to look at, with soft-looking brown hair and kind eyes. He laughed.  
  
“She could have sat in the front man, I don’t care.” He stuck his hand out for her to shake. “Bobby, but you already knew that. Sorry about him.”  
  
“Elizabeth. Don’t worry about it. He’s an ass.” This got another laugh out of Bobby as Johnny turned around to glare at her.  
  
“Hey, aren’t you that girl who came into Cobra Kai yesterday?”  
  
“That’s me." She didn’t drop Johnny’s gaze.  
  
“You’re a good fighter.” He said simply. “Alright man let’s drive! Susan’s bringing Lucy tonight.”  
  
Johnny groaned. “Dude, will you get over her? She’s not into you.”  
  
“Look man, she may not know it yet, but she totally wants me.” Johnny shook his head and they raced toward Golf N Stuff.  
  
Along the way, they picked up another one of Johnny’s friends, Dutch, who didn’t spare her a second look as he hopped in the back and immediately began complaining about some issue with his motorbike. Elizabeth tried to pay attention, but her mind drifted as she watched the scenery fly by. If only Ali were here. Then, at least, she’d have someone to talk to as these guys went on about motorbikes and their maintenance.  
  
“Aren’t you that chick who came into Cobra Kai yesterday?” Elizabeth jumped a little, looking over at the bleached-blond boy who was suddenly intensely staring at her.  
  
“Um, yeah,” She looked up at Johnny, who was glaring at Dutch in the rearview mirror, jaw clenched at the second mention of their fight in the dojo.  
  
Dutch laughed. “Man, she totally kicked your _ass _yesterday.” He clapped his hand on Johnny’s shoulder and shook him a little. Johnny shrugged the hand off.  
  
“Whatever, man. I totally beat her and you know it.” He turned and sneered at Elizabeth. “I would never lose to a girl”  
  
“You didn’t win because I’m a girl, you won because you cheated.”  
  
“I did not!” He exclaimed hotly, turning around as if he was gonna climb into the backseat to have a go at her.  
  
Bobby grabbed his arm. “Come on man, focus on the road.” Johnny shook off his arm and turned back around, sulking.  
  
Dutch seemed unable to keep himself from stirring the pot. “Aw, wittle Johnny upset because he lost to a girl?”  
  
Bobby glared at Dutch. “Can you not tonight? I’d like to get to Golf N Stuff in one piece.”  
  
Dutch laughed again, reaching forward to garb Johnny’s shoulder. “I’m just bustin’ your chops man, don’t get your panties in a wad.” Johnny muttered something unflattering under his breath but kept driving.  
  
\--  
  
Thankfully when they got to Golf N Stuff, Ali and some of their other friends had already arrived. Elizabeth jumped out of the car and stumbled a little on the landing. Bobby’s hand shot out and caught her arm.  
  
“Woah there, you know the seat moves forward right? You don’t have to climb in and out of the car.” She turned to look at Johnny who was watching her with his patented jerk smirk. She rolled her eyes.  
  
“He didn’t exactly give me a thorough tour. Thanks though.” Elizabeth suddenly felt shy, Bobby hadn’t taken his hand off her arm and his kind brown eyes were boring into her own. They stared at each other for a minute before he dropped her arm and stepped away.  
  
“Elizabeth! I’m so glad you made it!” Ali appeared out of nowhere, throwing her arms around Elizabeth. Her arms came up almost unbidden, surprised at how… nice Ali was being. “You two managed to make the whole ride without drawing blood? I’m impressed.” Ali stepped back, looking over at Johnny who swooped down to kiss Ali, right in front of Elizabeth.  
  
Blech.  
  
“Just barely,” Bobby laughed. “Hey, Lucy. How you doin’?” He slid up next to a girl with bright red hair and draped an arm over her shoulder. She rolled her eyes and pushed his arm off, whispering to the girl next to her. Elizabeth had to stifle a laugh at his crestfallen face.  
  
Ali took her by the hand and led Elizabeth over to the three girls standing behind her. “Elizabeth, meet the girls! This is Susan, Barbara, and Lucy.” They all waved, just as friendly as Ali.  
  
“Nice to meet you guys.” Elizabeth awkwardly shuffled her feet. There was a pause.  
  
“You just moved here from Maryland, right?” Barbara asked.  
  
“Uh, Maine, actually. Augusta.”  
  
“Oh cool. I bet it’s a lot cooler up there. How’s the L.A. heat treating you?” the brunette asked.  
  
Elizabeth sighed. “It’s so fucking hot here all the time! How do you guys deal?” they all giggled.  
  
“A lot of time spent at the beach,” Susan said.  
  
“You’ll have to go with us sometime!” Lucy piped up. “I’ll bet you look killer in a swimsuit.”  
  
Elizabeth flushed, unsure how to handle the compliment.  
  
“Come on let’s go get something to eat!” Dutch interrupted. “I’m starving.”  
  
“You’re always hungry.” Barbara teased.  
  
“Hey I’m an athlete, I’ve got to maintain a healthy diet so I can feed these guns.” he flexed and they all laughed.  
  
“Yeah? Is that why you drink milkshakes so much?” Bobby asked.  
  
“Milk has protein!” Ali looked at her and shook her head.  
  
\--  
  
After they all got their food they all crowded around a picnic table and began talking about the upcoming school year, comparing schedules.  
  
“Have you gotten yours yet, Elizabeth?” Lucy asked her, just as she shoved a couple of fries in her mouth. She choked on them and Bobby patted her firmly on the back as she coughed, thoroughly embarrassed.  
  
“Uh, no.” She said once her throat had cleared. “I think it got lost in the mail or something? I have to go to the office on the first day so they can give me my locker and everything.”  
  
“That sucks,” Bobby said. Lucy nodded.  
  
“You guys ate without us?’ Another boy ran up to them, he was blonde, with kind of a mousey face. Behind him was a slightly taller boy with brown hair. The group barely looked up.  
  
“Hey Tommy, hey Jimmy.”  
  
“If you had actually shown up on time you could have eaten with us,” Dutch said, jumping up to greet them.  
  
“Jimmy was… indisposed when I got there, so we ran a little late,” Tommy snickered.  
  
“Hey fuck you man,” Jimmy said.  
  
“Aww,” the guys mocked.  
  
“What happened?” Lucy leaned forward to ask, obviously into Jimmy. Poor Bobby.  
  
“His mommy made him do the dishes,” Tommy snorted, slapping Jimmy on the back, who rolled his eyes, which landed on Elizabeth.  
  
“Who’s this?” Jimmy pointed at her.  
  
Elizabeth started to speak, but Dutch cut her off. “This is the girl who came into the dojo yesterday, don’t you remember? The one who fought Johnny.” She rolled her eyes.  
  
“My name’s Elizabeth.” She leaned back against the table as Tommy studied her, eyes dancing with laughter.  
  
“Oh yeah, I totally remember you, you almost beat Johnny man, none of us have been able to do that, and we’ve been training with him for years,” he laughed. The guys all laughed at that. Well, all of them but Johnny, but that didn’t surprise her.  
  
“You fought Johnny?” Susan leaned forward, eyebrows raised.  
  
“I would have beat him too, if he hadn’t cheated."  
  
“Hey, I didn’t cheat, you’re the one who held out your hand. You showed weakness, and I defeated you.” Johnny interjected. She rolled her eyes.  
  
“You guys seriously think helping someone up after you finish sparring with them is weakness?”  
  
“Well think about it this way” Dutch jumped in, “if you were fighting someone in the real world, would you help them up after you kicked their ass, or would you let them wallow?”  
  
“Well obviously if I fought someone in the ‘real world’” she held up her fingers to make air quotes around ‘real world,’ “I wouldn’t help them up, but it wasn’t the real world, it was a fucking sparring match. I’m not gonna fight on the mat the same way I would in the street.” Dutch looked disgusted.  
  
“What’s the point of studying karate if you’re not gonna train to fight for real?” He spluttered. She shrugged.  
  
“It’s fun, and I’m good at it,” she smirked.  
  
“You practice karate for fun? That’s it?” Tommy asked, incredulous.  
  
“Well, that and everyone told me I shouldn’t. It’s not ‘ladylike’” She grinned at their dumbfounded faces. “I don’t like people telling me what to do.” Dutch laughed and slung an arm around her shoulder.  
  
“You know I think I like this one, she’s feisty. Good job Ali.” Elizabeth laughed, pushing his arm away, but was secretly pleased that they all seemed to like her.  
____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, Elizabeth has better chemistry with Ali than Johnny at this point. Also definitely kept typing Bobby as Booby bc I'm a dumb bitch. lmk what you think! will try to update faster, but you know, school and stuff.


	5. Friday Night's Alright For Fighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha this took so much longer than I meant it to, whoops. On the bright side, I have been planning the story a little more so it has some more direction, you'll notice a chapter count that I totally definitely will probably stick to maybe.

Over the next week, Elizabeth found herself spending more and more time with the group. On Monday, she accompanied Ali and the girls to the mall, where they introduced her to the wonderful world of L.A. fashion. The secret to a well-rounded closet, Susan insisted, was miniskirts, and lots of them.  
  
On Tuesday, Johnny picked her up again— this time with Ali and Bobby already in tow— and they met the rest of the group at the drive-in. At one point, Lucy and Jimmy snuck off together, and when Bobby noticed, he grabbed Tommy and the two of them disappeared. A few minutes later, the boys came back with popcorn and began pelting all the happy couples around them. Elizabeth joined in, laughing hard when Tommy tipped the rest of his container over Johnny and Ali, and even harder when Ali socked him in the jaw.  
  
Wednesday they went back to Golf N Stuff and Bobby challenged her to shoot baskets in the arcade. The two of them raced to be the first to 21, Elizabeth just barely beating him, 21-19. After her twenty-first point, Elizabeth burst into a victory dance, flinging her arms out and promptly smacking the guy walking behind her and knocking the drink from his hand.  
  
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Bobby cackled and she shot him a look, crouching to clean up the guy’s drink.  
  
“Watch where you’re going, bitch.” She stopped cold.  
  
“—the fuck did you just call me?” Elizabeth jumped up, ready to punch this guy when Bobby grabbed her arm.  
  
“C’mon Elizabeth,” Bobby said. “He's not worth it. Let’s just go.”  
  
“Yeah,” the douche sneered. “Listen to your little boyfriend and get lost.” Bobby’s grip tightened on her arm as if anticipating her struggle against his grip.  
  
“Be glad I’m not in the mood, asshole,” he spat, dragging Elizabeth off to find the rest of the group. Their nice moment alone was ruined. She sulked a little, upset that asshole had spoiled their fun, and even more upset that Bobby seemed to think she couldn’t take him.  
  
The rest of the night passed without any more near fights, Elizabeth even heroically ignored Johnny’s snide comments about her and Bobby playing basketball. When they dropped her off, Ali leaned out of the car and promised to call the next day to make plans.  
  
The next morning though, her mom burst into Elizabeth’s room in a mood, startling her from her sleep.  
  
“Unbelievable!”  
  
Elizabeth’s head popped up from her mass of pillows, hair a mess as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What?”  
  
“You still haven’t unpacked?” Mom gesticulated wildly, indicating the mess of half-opened boxes around her. Since last Friday she hadn’t done much with the piles of boxes in her rooms. Aside from digging through a couple to find a certain top or a Speedwagon tape she’d buried, the boxes had pretty much remained untouched.  
  
“I haven’t had time,” Elizabeth said lamely. This wasn’t really true. When she hadn’t been hanging with Ali and the rest of the group, Elizabeth had been sulking around her room, missing home and secretly hoping her dad would decide to quit his job here and move them all back to Maine.  
  
“Well, you’re gonna make time because I’m tired of this ridiculous mess.” Mom pushed a box over with her foot, and stumbled over to Elizabeth’s bed, snatching back the blankets.  
  
Elizabeth groaned. _If you don’t like the mess, you don’t have to come in here, _she thought but knew better than to say that out loud. Just as she opened her mouth to respond, the phone rang.  
  
‘Can I get that?” Mom sighed.  
  
“Sure,” she stood there with her hands on her hips while Elizabeth picked up the phone/  
  
“Hello?”  
  
“Hey, Elizabeth.” It was Ali. “Barbara, Susan, and I were gonna go to this music store in the mall later, do you wanna come?” She looked up at her mom.  
  
“Maybe. Look I’ll call you back in a second, okay?”  
  
“Okay! But you have to come, Bobby and Tommy are gonna meet us there, and we’re gonna see a movie. Bobby has literally not stopped talking about you since you met!” She decided to let that one slide for now. Her mom’s weighty, angry stare was more pressing than Ali’s delusions about her and Bobby.  
  
“I’ll try. Bye,” Elizabeth put down the phone and looked up at her mom. “That was Ali, they’re gonna go to the mall and maybe—”  
  
“No. Absolutely not. You’re not going anywhere until this mess is cleaned up.”  
  
“But Mom—”  
  
“No buts!”  
  
“You’re the one who wanted me to make friends,” Elizabeth pouted.  
  
“I’m sure they’ll understand if you can’t hang out for one day.” Mom turned to leave. “And hey, if you work fast enough, you can take your car when she calls tomorrow.”  
  
“Juno’s here?” Her car was named Juno.  
  
“Yep, and you can have the keys when you finish unpacking. Chop chop.”  
  
Elizabeth groaned, dragging herself off the bed. She weakly kicked at the box next to her feet. Stupid box. Stupid move. The phone stared at her, taunting her until she picked it up to call Ali and break the news.  
  
Once she got started, unpacking didn’t actually take very long. Elizabeth’s biggest task was organizing her bookcases. There were three; one full of, well, books and another, music. Her music collection was her pride and joy. 6 shelves, 2 with records and 4 with tapes, stacked two deep and three tall in places. She organized her music by release date, newest at the top, oldest at the bottom. Back in Augusta, Elizabeth had spent all her time not in school or at the dojo haunting music shops, buying up tapes, even for bands she didn’t like, to have a robust collection.  
  
The final case held all of her karate paraphernalia: trophies, medals, old belts, pictures at tournaments and with her sensei. Elizabeth felt a twinge, setting up all of this stuff. The group had kept her so busy there hadn’t been time to look for another dojo, and with school starting, she’d have even less time to search. Karate had always helped to balance her, taming her unruly temper. Elizabeth missed being in the dojo, the feel of the mat under her bare feet, the smell of sweat, the thrill of facing new challenges. Hopefully, now that Juno was in town, she could find a new sensei to study under.  
  
The next day, Elizabeth bounced restlessly as her mom inspected the room. Ali had called her the night before and told her that if she had her freedom on Friday, the gang was gonna spend the day at the beach. That morning, Elizabeth put on the swimsuit Ali made her buy at the mall— a green one-piece that cut a little higher on the hips than she liked. Over the suit, she’d pulled on shorts and a t-shirt. Just as she’d been about to fly out the door, her mom had caught her and insisted on inspecting the room to make sure Elizabeth hadn’t stuffed boxes under her bed or into her closet.  
Once she was satisfied with the unpacking Elizabeth had done, she nodded to her, and Elizabeth went flying down the stairs. She barely slowed to snatch her keys from the elegant table in the foyer before she burst out the door, ready to be driving again. It wasn’t until she reached her car that Elizabeth realized she didn’t know where the beach was, or how to get there. Just then, Johnny pulled up, sans Ali, and hopped out of the car.  
  
He must not have noticed her next to her car, because when she greeted him, Johnny nearly jumped out of his skin. She laughed.  
  
“Christ. Give a guy some warning.” Johnny muttered, and then noticed the keys in her hand. “Is this your car?” He seemed impressed.  
  
“Yeah. Isn’t she beautiful? 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda Convertible. I call her Juno.”  
  
Johnny ran his hand along the passenger side door. “You named your car?”  
  
“Yeah, like the Roman goddess? Juno is the goddess of family and marriage, married to Jupiter. She’s known for being temperamental and vengeful, just like my baby.” He chuckled.  
  
“Your car is vengeful?”  
“If you don’t take care of her right.” Elizabeth noticed distantly that this was the first time she and Johnny had talked without arguing. “The brakes are super touchy too, comes with age.”  
  
“Why don’t you just get a new car?” Elizabeth bristled, the way she always did when her and her dad had this argument. Sure, she could get a new car, they certainly had the money. But nothing could replace her Juno.  
  
“They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. That long sleek body? That’s something you don’t find on newer models.” Elizabeth couldn’t help but think about Johnny’s car, nice, but bulky.  
  
Johnny huffed a laugh. “Never took you for a car fanatic.”  
  
“The things you don’t know about me could fill many books, Lawrence,” he looked at her, something approaching a smile on his lips. “Not that you’d be able to read them.” He scowled and she grinned. That was the Johnny she knew. Annoyed. She slapped her hand onto the car.  
  
“Let’s get going, we picking up Ali?” Elizabeth turned to head toward the car.  
  
“Yeah, Bobby and Dutch too.” She reached for the door, and Johnny shot her a look. She was instantly annoyed.  
  
“I am not sitting in the back when no one is in the car.” He scowled again.  
  
“But, Ali-”  
  
“I’m not! I’ll move when we get there, but I am not gonna ride in the back like a little kid.” She pulled open the door and sat in the front seat with her arms crossed, looking defiantly up at Johnny. If he wanted her in the back he could move her there. He sighed.  
  
“Whatever.”  
  
They stopped for Ali first, and true to her word, Elizabeth moved into the back while Johnny and Ali did their whole love-sick greeting thing.  
  
They picked up Bobby next and he nodded briefly at Elizabeth, before turning to talk to Johnny. It seemed unlikely that he was ‘talking about her nonstop’ especially if he wouldn’t say anything to her. When they picked up Dutch, he ran up to the driver’s side of the car, looked at Bobby, and told him to sit in the middle.  
  
“No way man! Climb over, there’s plenty of room.” Bobby patted the seat next to him.  
  
“You’re shorter, you take the cramped seat. Come on, princess, scooch.” Dutch insisted, shoving Bobby over. Bobby fell to the side, then popped back up to shove Dutch back.  
  
“Guys-” Ali started, but they ignored her. Dutch lunged over the car door, tackling Bobby, who knocked into Elizabeth. “Seriously?”  
  
Dutch propped himself up to look at Ali, legs awkwardly dangling out of the car. “Sorry, Mom.” He snickered, and Bobby awkwardly flailed around, bumping Elizabeth, who shifted, trying to press into the side of the car and give him room to sit up.  
  
“Morons,” Johnny muttered, as they all got settled in.  
  
Bobby gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry.” Her stomach fluttered a little bit with that bright smile directed at her. She would have scowled at it, but she tried to make it a habit not to glare at her own body parts.  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Elizabeth said.  
  
\--  
  
Once they got to the beach, Dutch and Bobby burst out of the car, racing to the shore and shoving at each other. Johnny and Ali stopped to grab a cooler and some blankets from the trunk.  
Ali turned to her as they walked toward the water. “Have you ever been to the beach before?”  
  
“Yeah, but Maine beaches are a whole different breed. You don’t exactly lounge there, it’s more of a, bundle up, complain about the cold and the mist, wonder why you came, and then leave situation.”  
  
“Sounds like a blast,” Ali laughed. “Well, Cali beaches are great for lounging, you’re gonna love it.”  
  
Love it she did. Once they set up their stuff, the guys went to horse around in the water, dunking each other in the waves and challenging each other to see who could swim out the farthest. Elizabeth hung back with the girls, Susan, Lucy, and Barbara had arrived shortly after them, to sit on the beach and gossip for a while. Lucy talked about her and Jimmy, apparently, the two were fast on their way to becoming an official thing. Susan went on and on about Dutch, apparently, she’d had a thing for him since they were freshmen. Elizabeth mostly listened and nodded along where it seemed appropriate. Despite how quickly they had drawn her into their group, she still didn’t know them all that well and didn’t have much to add.  
  
“What about you?” Barbara turned to her suddenly, squinting a little as the sun hit her eyes.  
  
“Me?” Elizabeth asked.  
  
“Yeah, have you seen anyone cute yet?” Barbara needled.  
  
“Well, I’ve pretty much only met those guys,” she jerked her head toward the water, where the guys had started playing a game of chicken. Tommy was on Dutch’s shoulders, Johnny on Bobby’s, and Jimmy was refereeing- or drowning maybe.  
  
“What about at the club?” Lucy piped up.  
  
“Oh yeah!” Susan joined in. “Jared Wessleman’s family are members there. He’s so cute, you two would be perfect for each other.”  
  
Elizabeth was at a loss. How could she possibly already have her eye on a guy? She’d only been in town for two weeks.  
  
“I think Bobby might be a little jealous if Elizabeth and Jared hooked up,” Ali sing-songed. Elizabeth rolled her eyes.  
  
Barbara gasped. “You and Bobby?”  
  
“No!” Elizabeth laughed. “Ali has this crazy idea-”  
  
“Definitely not crazy.” Ali interrupted. “Bobby has not stopped talking about Elizabeth since they met. I’ll bet anything he’s got a crush.” The girls all giggled.  
  
Elizabeth stood up. “You know what? Why don’t we go down to the water, I’ve never swum in an ocean that was warmer than 50 degrees.”  
  
“Wanna go down and see Bobby huh?” Lucy teased, and Elizabeth paused in taking off her shirt to shoot Lucy a look. “You guys seriously need to get a grip. He’s done nothing to indicate he even likes me, much less has a crush.” She kicked off her shorts and kicked a little sand at Lucy, who cackled.  
  
“Okay, okay! We surrender. You and Bobby are so totally not into each other, and we can drop the whole thing.” Elizabeth sighed in relief. “But I will add that he just lost his chicken match because he was staring at your totally hot body in that swimsuit.”  
  
Elizabeth whipped her head around to look at Bobby, who was popping up from the waves, sputtering and shaking his head. She scoffed. “Whatever.”  
  
They all laughed again and took off for the water.  
  
\--  
  
For the rest of the day, Elizabeth experienced a California beach. They had all splashed around in the water for a while, until Jimmy picked up Lucy and dunked her under the water, and the girls decided the boys were too immature to hang out with. Secretly, Elizabeth was pleased. She was definitely not used to standing in water that was always trying to knock her down, and more than once Bobby had caught her from falling into the waves.  
  
Every time he did, one of the girls would catch her eye and waggle their eyebrows knowingly, and Elizabeth would not-so-discreetly splash them in the face.  
  
Once on land, she lay out for a little bit to get dry and then slipped into her shorts and shirt again, because no matter how hot the girls all insisted she looked, she still had her dad’s pale skin, and she knew she was gonna have a wicked sunburn the next day.  
  
Around dinner time, the guys finally emerged from the water, salty and pruny, to start a fire. They had brought along some hot dogs and s’mores stuff, and they all indulged.  
  
Once the sun started to set, Dutch dove back into the cooler and pulled out a bigger case of beer than should reasonably have been able to fit in there. He passed them around, and they shared the other secret of a great beach day with her: getting drunk.  
  
They all laughed and chatted amicably for a while when suddenly the conversation took a turn toward karate. They were all four beers in, which meant that Dutch had drunk at least six. He kept shotgunning them and calling them all pussies for drinking at a normal pace.  
  
“Now Johnny, remind us again about how you managed to lose to a girl?” Elizabeth tensed. After the nice moment she and Johnny had had by the car earlier, she had almost forgotten why they got along so terribly in the first place.  
  
“I didn’t lose to a girl. I totally kicked her ass,” Johnny sneered, face red from the beer and the fire. The group groaned.  
  
“Can we stop having this stupid argument?” Bobby asked. “No one cares who won the fight, it was a week ago, get over it.”  
  
Elizabeth suddenly remembered how Bobby had held her back from the fight at Golf N Stuff, and looking across the fire at Johnny’s stupid smug face, she had the urge to hash it all out again.  
  
“Yeah, Johnny. You got your ass handed to by a girl, get over it.” She taunted.  
  
A kind of hush fell over the group, though Dutch was cackling.  
  
“You did not beat me!” Johnny suddenly stood up, sand going everywhere.  
  
“C’mon Johnny-” Ali pulled at his arm as Elizabeth shot up herself. She swayed a little where she stood, beers messing up her balance.  
  
“Did too. I could do it again if you’d like me to remind you what it was like.”  
  
“C’mon guys let’s just calm-” Bobby started, but Johnny cut him off.  
  
“No. She’s right. Let’s settle this. Once and for all. A fair fight, here at the beach.”  
  
Elizabeth smirked. “You are so on.”  
  
They started to move away from the fire, stumbling a little between the beer, the dark, and the uneven ground.  
  
Tommy and Dutch whooped, coming over to egg them on. Bobby sighed and stood up too, coming over to grab Johnny’s arm.  
  
“C’mon man, you’re drunk. Let’s just go home.”  
  
“No. I wanna settle this. She thinks she’s so great? Let’s see how well she can really fight.” Johnny insisted.  
  
“Johnny don’t you dare. Just drop it okay?” Ali came over, enraged. When he ignored her, she turned to Elizabeth. “Elizabeth, you don’t wanna do this. Let’s just go.”  
  
“It’ll be fine Ali, just a nice civil fight. We won’t like, kill each other, just put this whole argument to bed. Right, Johnny?”  
  
Johnny smirked. “Right.”  
  
Dutch came up and grabbed Bobby by the shoulders. ‘C’mon Al, Bobby. Let’s let these kids get it all out of their system, okay?” He started to walk away, pulling Bobby reluctantly along. Ali shot them one last desperate look.  
  
The two of them stepped into their fighting stances, Johnny had a hard look in his eyes. He wasn’t gonna let her get close to beating him again.  
  
With a cry, he charged her, throwing a punch that she easily ducked under.  
  
“Whoa.” She was a little unsteady from the beer, but she rallied and turned around to deliver a strike of her own.  
  
They exchanged blows for a while, starting sloppy and getting sloppier, tired, and drunk. Elizabeth hit him on the shoulder once, and he responded with a weak blow to her side. Eventually, Johnny got the best of her, kind of. He stepped toward her, took her shoulders in hand, and swept her foot out from under her. She probably could have easily stopped it had she been at her best, but she wasn’t so she went tumbling down.  
  
Johnny threw up his hands triumphantly. “Ha! I win!” Elizabeth rolled her eyes and kicked out, grunting with the effort of it, and swept Johnny’s leg so he came tumbling down in the soft sand next to her.  
  
She flailed her arm over weakly, striking him on the side. “Ha! No mercy right? Never celebrate a victory too early Lawrence.” She started to sit up, then leaned to the side and puked.  
  
Bobby and Ali were suddenly at their sides. Bobby heaved Johnny up with some effort and started walking him back over to the fire. Ali patted Elizabeth’s back consolingly as she retched.  
  
“Yeah, you’re both excellent fighters. Might even be the next Rocky.” She said drily.  
  
Elizabeth leaned back onto Ali and smiled content. She started to nod off when Ali clapped her hands together. “Okay! That was an exciting end to the night, now let’s go home. I’m tired.” she stood up, bringing Elizabeth with her.  
  
“Johnny, where are your keys? I’m driving.” She held her hand out expectantly in her boyfriend’s face. He just stared up at her. He looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it and handed her the keys.  
  
On the way home, Elizabeth leaned her head on Bobby’s shoulder, tipsy enough to not care if Ali thought this meant they liked each other. She was more of a lightweight than she'd like to admit.  
  
Once they reached home, Elizabeth took a deep breath, preparing to act sober in case she ran into her mom.  
  
“Hey, good fight tonight!” Dutch called out, and Bobby smacked him. “You should give Cobra Kai another go, seems like you’re really starting to get the hang of the way of the fist.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes and flipped him off as he cackled some more, heading inside to crash on her bed and fall into a deep sleep.  
__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should win an award for the most number of "cackling"s used in one chapter.  
>   
> Here's Johnny's comeuppance for losing the first fight and cheating.  
>   
> Thanks for the kudos and comments! I'm glad people are enjoying this self-indulgent pile of hot garbage.


	6. Our Last Night of Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I officially want to offer my apologies to every fic writer I ever complained at for being slow. This is taking way more time than I thought it would lol

The next morning, Elizabeth’s eyes slowly fluttered open as the sunlight rudely streamed in over her face. She stretched and winced, her sore muscles protesting movement. Rolling out of bed, Elizabeth shuffled into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. Unbidden, her hand came up to poke at the red skin of her face. Elizabeth hadn’t been this sunburnt since her dad took them to Florida for vacation when she was nine. _Ouch._  
  
Elizabeth sighed and turned on her shower before coming back to the sink to brush her teeth. She had to get this awful taste out of her mouth- like an IPA had crawled into her mouth and died there.  
  
The water was entirely too hot when she stepped in, and it scorched her burnt skin. Elizabeth cursed the too hot California sun as she gently washed the saltwater from her body.  
  
As she was toweling off, her phone rang. “Hey, Nichols, how ya feeling?” Naturally, it was Ali. The only person in California who had her number apparently. “All recovered from your drunken slap fight?”  
  
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, not that Ali could see. “I only had like 4 beers, I was not drunk.”  
  
“The vomit currently on the beach would beg to differ.”  
  
“Yeah well, you can blame that on your boyfriend’s punch to my gut,” Ali didn’t laugh and Elizabeth shifted, feeling awkward. Maybe she wasn’t as chill as Elizabeth thought she was about her and Johnny fighting. “Look, about last night-”  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Ali interrupted. “Dutch and Johnny fight like at least once a week, and it gets way worse than two idiots falling into the sand.” Elizabeth huffed a little at being called an idiot but felt relieved. Ali wasn't mad at her.  
  
“Look, I was calling because Jimmy is gonna be throwing a party tonight, sort of a last hurrah before school starts type of thing. You free?” Elizabeth glanced at her bathroom door, where she’d hung a full-length mirror. Her lobster-red face stared back at her.  
  
“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that. I got pretty sunburnt yesterday. I kind of look like a tomato,” Ali groaned.  
  
“Come on, you have to come. They have a pool, plus Jimmy’s older brother is gonna get us booze.” Ali added a little sing-song lilt to the end.  
  
Elizabeth sighed, poking at her arm, which briefly turned white before coloring red again. “Fine. But I swear to God if one person comments on the sunburn I will throw them in the pool.”  
  
Ali laughed. “We’re gonna go over at 8, but the girls are all gonna come over to mine at 6 to eat and get ready together, you wanna come?”  
  
“Sounds like fun.”  
  
“Excellent! Oh, Johnny was telling me about your car, you should drive it over tonight!” Elizabeth was surprised Johnny had told Ali about that.  
  
“I don’t know, I kinda don’t wanna be driving her if we’re gonna be drinking.”  
  
“Oh no, we’re all gonna stay over at Jimmy’s tonight! He’s got this huge basement, it’s like middle school slumber parties all over again.” Ali insisted, and she relaxed a little.  
  
“Okay, I’ll talk to my mom.”  
  
“Great! Oh, I don’t know if she’ll have an issue with you staying at a guy's house, but the girls usually just tell their parents they’re staying at mine. It’s easier that way.” Elizabeth felt a little relieved; ever since her cousin got pregnant at 16 she had a really hard time convincing her mom to let her go anywhere boys would be present. Once her school did a lock-in, and it took Elizabeth a record five hours to get her mom to agree to let her go. And there would be adults there.  
  
“That’s great! She would definitely be less than thrilled at the thought of me spending the night in some guy's basement without supervision.” Ali laughed.  
  
“Great! My house is at 4072 Alonzo Ave. The second house on the left, you can’t miss it.”  
  
“4072 Alonzo Ave,” Elizabeth repeated. “Got it. See you at 6!”  
  
“See you then! Oh and don’t forget your swimsuit. Bobby was totally checking you out yesterday!”  
  
“Oh look at that,” Elizabeth started making garbled noises into the phone as Ali giggled. “You’re breaking up, I think someone cut the phone lines, bye!” She hung up.  
  
Momentarily forgetting about her crispy skin, Elizabeth flopped face-first onto her bed and immediately regretted it. “Ow fuck.”  
  
\--  
  
Later that day, Elizabeth tossed her bag into the passenger side seat of her car. She hadn’t been sure of what to bring, so she went for more than less and figured if she had embarrassingly overpacked she could just stuff some of it into the trunk and forget it existed.  
  
Surprisingly, it had taken Elizabeth very little convincing to get her mom to let her “spend the night at Ali’s.” The amount of trust the woman had in this girl just because her parents were the “right sort” was frankly insane. But Elizabeth definitely did not complain, if it meant getting drunk without her mother knowing.  
  
She pulled up in front of the house, recognizing Susan’s powder blue car, and walked up the front steps to knock on the door. It was a nice house, all the houses in the neighborhood were nice.  
  
“Elizabeth, hi!” Ali flung open the door, thrilled to see her.  
  
“Hey!” She held up her bag awkwardly. “I didn’t know what all to bring so,”  
  
“Oh, don’t worry about it, we’ve got everything covered.” No idea what that meant. Elizabeth leaned a little closer to Ali to check if she had already been drinking.  
  
Suddenly, Ali was dragging her by the arm into the house. She started to pull Elizabeth up the stairs when a voice stopped them. “And who’s this?”  
  
“Dad, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth this is my dad!” Ali gestured to the man in front of them. He was tall, with a stern face and graying hair.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Mills,” Elizabeth politely stuck her hand out to shake.  
  
“Nice to finally meet you too. Ali’s been talking about you quite a bit. You just moved here from Maine, is that correct?”  
  
“Yes sir, my dad got a job working in accounting for a production company out here.”  
  
“Oh very nice. Well, you girls better run upstairs and get ready, dinner will be ready in just a few minutes.”  
  
“Alright, Dad.” And Ali was pulling her again, up the curved staircase and down the plush hallway into her room.  
  
Susan, Lucy, and Barbara were all already there, waving curling irons around and talking animatedly. There was a cloud of hairspray in the air, Elizabeth coughed a little bit with it.  
  
“Oh, Elizabeth you’re here! Good, we were just-” Susan paused. “What happened to your face?” Elizabeth winced.  
  
“Well I’m not quite the California native, my skin isn’t used to the sun being out this long, not like you surfer girls.” She lamented, and they all giggled.  
  
“What are you, a vampire?” Ali teased.  
  
“Yeah, she’s blood red.” Lucy answered from the opposite side of the room. Elizabeth gasped dramatically and grabbed a pillow to throw at her. Lucy dodged it easily. “Hey, be nice to me or I won’t do your hair.” She waved the curling iron threateningly in Elizabeth’s direction.  
  
Elizabeth touched her hair, suddenly self-conscious. “I kind of already did my hair, this is as good as it gets.” As much as she loved her hair for being low maintenance, Elizabeth often lamented the way her hair lay flat no matter what she did to it.  
  
“Oh no, Lucy’s some kind of miracle worker, you won’t believe what she can do with a curling iron and about 7 cans of Aquanet.” Barbara protested from the chair she was seated in, obediently tilting her head as Lucy adjusted her.  
  
“It’s true. She’s our resident hairdresser,” Ali said. Her voice took on a mock reverent tone as she added, “ Lucy can do things with scrunchies that will blow your mind.”  
  
Elizabeth laughed. “Okay, okay. Work your magic on me, oh great one.” She mocked bowed toward Lucy, who gave her the stink eye.  
  
“You laugh now, but you won’t be laughing later when you’re the coolest girl at the party.” Elizabeth laughed harder at that.  
  
“Oh, I highly doubt I’ll be the coolest one there. After all, I am attending a party with _the_ Ali Mills.”  
  
“Oh please,” Ali said. “You just moved here from across the country, plus with that kick-ass hair and your ability to, well, kick ass. You’ll have boys falling at your feet.”  
  
“Just what I need,” Elizabeth said sarcastically. “Hey, if we brought our swimsuits for the pool, then why are we doing our hair, won’t it just get wet?”  
  
“Oh no,” Barbara said. “We don’t swim. We lounge by the pool, looking hot until one of the boys throws us in, and then we scream about our hair.” They all laughed.  
  
“But why go through all the trouble doing the hair if it’ll get ruined?” Elizabeth wondered, still lost.  
  
“Ugh, Maine girls, they just don’t get it do they?” Barbara lamented. And Elizabeth turned to Ali for clarification.  
  
“It’s like a flirting thing. Remember, as a kid, when boys would pull your hair and run away?” Elizabeth did not. The boys never got very far before she hit them. “Now boys will throw you into the pool to get your attention.”  
  
“Very effective,” Elizabeth said drily.  
  
“Girls!” A female voice called from downstairs. “Dinner’s ready!”  
  
\--  
  
A couple of hours later, when they pulled up to Jimmy’s house, Elizabeth’s jaw dropped open. All of their houses were big, they all lived in Encino Hills, but this was a special kind of huge. The front steps looked to be made of marble, at least 20 feet wide and leading up to two huge thirty-foot columns. She couldn’t believe his parents would ever leave this house unsupervised. It looked like the type of place you would hire the secret service to guard.  
  
Cars already lined the road, music blaring as people pulled up and ran into the open house. Elizabeth stepped out of her car and walked up the steps into the house with Ali and the rest of the girls. The party was already in full swing, people with red plastic cups stood and chatted in the foyer, the huge living room, the kitchen, if she craned her neck she could see people spilling out the back door into the yard; almost their entire class had to be here, and people were still arriving.  
  
“Guys!” Jimmy emerged from the throng and came over to greet them. “What’s up?” They all greeted him and he stopped in front of Lucy and lowered his voice a bit. “Hey.”  
  
She smiled. “Hey.”  
  
Jimmy put his arm around Lucy’s shoulder and turned to the rest of them. “Welcome! Drinks are in the kitchen, pool’s in the back, you know the drill.”  
  
“Is Dutch here?” Susan asked, clearly going for casual and sounding anything but.  
  
Jimmy wasn’t phased. “I think I saw him with Tommy in the kitchen.”  
  
Susan looped her arm through Barbara’s. “Let’s go get a drink.” The two of them walked off, whispering and giggling to each other.  
  
Elizabeth watched them go, and when she turned back, Jimmy and Lucy were, uh, more thoroughly greeting each other. Ali made a face. “I need a drink.” She grabbed Elizabeth’s arm and they followed the other girls to the kitchen.  
  
In the kitchen, Barbara and Susan were leaning up against the counter, giggling at something Tommy had said. When Elizabeth and Ali entered, Dutch threw up his hands and ran over to them.  
  
“Welcome to the party girls,” He slung an arm over each of their shoulders, leaning in to talk to them. Elizabeth winced, his breath reeked of alcohol already, and it was only 8:30. “Whatcha drinkin’?  
  
Ali rolled her eyes and ducked out from under his arm, walking over to the drinks and grabbing two cups. With Ali gone, Dutch leaned more heavily onto Elizabeth swinging his head over to look at her. “Shit Nichols, what happened to your face?” Elizabeth pushed off his arm, rolling her eyes. He pouted, swaying a little without her support.  
  
“It’s called a sunburn Dutch, surely you’ve heard of them?” Ali interrupted. “Here, Elizabeth. Catch up.” Ali pushed a red solo cup into her hand. Elizabeth looked dubiously down at the drink.  
  
“What is this?”  
  
“Lemonade,” Ali answered easily. Elizabeth shrugged and took a drink, then soured. That was _not_ lemonade. “With a little vodka.”  
  
“Jesus Christ, Al. I think I’ll just stick with beer for now.” She started to set the cup down as Bobby and Johnny burst into the kitchen.  
  
“Fear not ladies, the party has arrived.” Johnny swaggered over and dipped down to kiss Ali, who greeted him eagerly.  
  
Elizabeth slid away to get herself a beer and smiled at Bobby, who was pouring himself a drink from the keg. “Hey Elizabeth,” he said. “Whatcha drinkin’?”  
  
She looked down at the drink in her hand and frowned. “Some kind of vodka lemonade concoction Ali poured me. I think it’s more vodka than lemonade.”  
  
“It can’t be that bad, I mean Ali did make it.” He took the drink from her hand and sipped it. Immediately, his face screwed up. That bad indeed. Elizabeth laughed as he coughed. “Christ, that’s bad.”  
  
“What did I tell you?” She grabbed the beer he had in his other hand. If he wanted to talk shit, he could pay Elizabeth in beer.  
  
Bobby rolled his eyes but grabbed himself another drink. He surveyed her as he took a sip. “Why is your face so red? Vodka getting you already?” Elizabeth scowled.  
  
“Sunburn, asshole. Some of us haven’t mastered the California tan yet.” She indicated his tanned skin, which stood out nicely against a pink polo.  
  
Bobby raised an eyebrow. “You know they make sunscreen for that reason, right?”  
  
She shrugged. “My parents don’t believe in sunscreen. My mom read in some magazine that it gives you skin cancer.” Bobby full-on laughed at this.  
  
“You’re gonna have a lot of fun here Nichols.” He poked at her arm, and she pulled away, skin stinging.  
  
\--  
  
For a while, they all hung out by the pool, laughing and drinking. A bunch of the guys had started a group wrestling match in the pool, becoming more and more graceless as they continued to drink.  
  
After Elizabeth had gotten a few more beers in her, she finally accepted a mixed drink from Ali. She knew she must be getting to the drunk side of tipsy because they soon stopped tasting the way acetone smelled.  
  
True to the girls’ words, eventually they were all thrown into the pool. Dutch went first, pulling himself out of the pool and throwing Susan over his shoulder before jumping back in. The only one of them who was spared was Ali, Johnny knew what that right hook felt like and did not want to be on the receiving end.  
  
After breaking the surface, Elizabeth spluttered and splashed Dutch as hard as she could. He protested handily, after all, Tommy had been the one to throw her in, but she didn’t feel even the slightest bit bad.  
  
Too lazy to swim over to the steps, Elizabeth attempted to pull herself out of the pool where she was, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Her upper body strength was embarrassing at the best of times, most of her strength rest in her legs, but 3 beers and 4 vodka lemonades had completely sapped the strength from her arms. She pushed herself up till her waist was level with the edge of the pool, then flopped forward and just stayed there. The warm concrete felt nice.  
  
Bobby pulled himself up and lay next to her, looking over. “How’re ya doin’ Nichols?”  
  
She blinked slowly, a little insulted by the mirth in his voice. “I’m doing great, how are you doing?”  
  
He laughed and pulled himself all the way out of the pool, before squatting and offering his hand to her. “I’m just fine. Let’s get you up.” She took his hand and tried to stand up, but only succeeded in wiggling around a little on the ground.  
  
“That vodka really fucked her up,” Ali appeared on the other side of her, laughing as she tried to get up. Elizabeth huffed and pulled her hand away from Bobby, trying to use her own strength to stand up.  
  
Bobby sighed and switched tactics, slipping an arm around her back as he braced her side to lift her up. Tommy appeared on the other side of her, doing the same thing, Together, the two boys grunted and stood Elizabeth up. She broke away, annoyed that everyone was treating her like a kid.  
  
“I’m fine, seriously. Ali,” Elizabeth swayed forward and grabbed Ali’s arm. “Let’s do shots.”  
  
“Let’s get you dry.” Ali countered.  
  
Elizabeth pouted, but let herself be pulled into the house with Ali. They ended up in a bathroom, and Ali handed Elizabeth a towel so she could dry off. Elizabeth just stared at the fabric in her hand, not moving, so Ali sighed and sat her down on the toilet and began drying her off.  
  
Elizabeth sighed happily and leaned into Ali as she toweled her off, feeling warm and relaxed. With the towel wrapped around her shoulders, Elizabeth and Ali emerged from the bathroom and went back outside, sitting by the pool and laughing as the guys continued to wrestle in the water.  
  
While Ali and Elizabeth were arguing about who was going to win their water fight, Dutch or Bobby, a guy Elizabeth had yet to meet plopped down next to Ali. “What’s up good looking? Come here often?” Elizabeth groaned at the awful line and Ali rolled her eyes. He slipped an arm around Ali’s shoulder, and she tensed.  
  
“I’ve got a boyfriend. Get lost.”  
  
“I bet I can take him, doesn’t have to stop us from having our fun.” He persisted.  
  
No sooner had Ali opened her mouth to tell him off when the guy was being hauled off of her. Johnny had a hand around his throat and his eyes were flashing dangerously. “She said she’s got a boyfriend. Can’t you hear?”  
  
“Look I- I-” Johnny shook him a little. “I didn’t know she was your girl man. I’m sorry.”  
  
“Oh you’re sorry are you?” Johnny sneered. He shoved the guy and he fell, landing hard on his back as he attempted to catch himself with his hands.  
  
Johnny stepped out into a fighting stance. “Get up. If you’re so sure you can take me.”  
  
The guy’s eyes grew wide with fear. “L-look man, I don’t want any trouble okay?” He got up and started to back away, hands up in surrender.  
  
“No. You wanna fight me for Ali, let’s do it.” He punched the guy in the stomach and he folded.  
  
“Johnny that’s enough.” Ali stood up and put an arm on his shoulder, right as he reared his arm back to strike again. His elbow caught her in the face, and she sat back down, hard. Elizabeth wrapped an arm around her shoulder.  
  
Johnny paled. “Shit. Baby, I’m so sorry.”  
  
“Save it.” Elizabeth gently moved Ali’s hand, she was bleeding. She turned to glare at Johnny “Don’t you ever know when to quit?”  
  
“Let’s go get you cleaned up.” Elizabeth guided Ali inside, back to the same bathroom where Ali had dried her off. She took a towel and wet it, gently wiping at the blood on her face. Ali hissed as Elizabeth wiped at her nose.  
  
“Well, it’s not broken, but it’s probably gonna be sore for a while.” Ali grimaced and didn’t respond. Her pained expression made Elizabeth’s chest clench. “Hey, Johnny’s an idiot, but he would never hit you. Not on purpose.”  
  
“I know. It’s just-” she sighed. “Everything’s always such a fight for him. His fists are his first response to any problem. It’s gonna get him in real trouble someday.”  
  
Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to say. She placed her hand under Ali’s chin and tilted her head further back, cleaning under her nose. Ali pulled back a little, clearly not done. “You two aren’t so different in that way, you know?”  
  
Elizabeth’s hand fell to her side as she stepped back, annoyed that Ali would compare her to Johnny. “What do you mean?”  
  
“You both have this,” Ali paused, searching for the right words. “fighting spirit. Bobby told me about your run-in with the guy who called you a bitch at Golf N Stuff. How he had to hold you back so you wouldn’t clock him, sounds like something Johnny would do.” She mused darkly.  
  
Elizabeth swallowed, throat tight. When she spoke it came out strangled. “We are _not_ the same.”  
  
Ali looked at her, surprised that she sounded so upset. “It’s not an insult. I wouldn’t be dating Johnny if I didn’t like him.” Elizabeth turned away, jaw clenched. “Anger isn’t the worst thing, it can be useful. But if you don’t control it, it’ll consume you.  
  
Elizabeth didn’t respond. She just resumed her cleaning, pretty much useless now, but she wanted Ali to stop talking. Ali pushed her hand away again. “I’m worried Johnny won’t be able to control his.” Ali added softly.  
  
She cleared her throat. “You’re all sorted. Ready to go back out there?”  
  
Ali heaved another sigh. “I should talk to Johnny. Sort all of this out.”  
  
Elizabeth squeezed her hand. Together, they stepped out of the bathroom. Outside, Bobby and Johnny were deep in conversation. Johnny looked almost on the verge of tears. When they emerged, Johnny shot up.  
  
“Are you okay?” He turned to Elizabeth. “Is she okay?”  
  
Ali held up a hand. “I’m fine. Can we talk?” Johnny’s shoulders sagged.  
  
“Yeah, uh,” he looked around. All over, people were craning their necks to watch them. “Can we go upstairs?” Ali nodded and turned to walk away. Johnny followed looking defeated.  
  
Elizabeth sighed and walked over to the drink table, stomach twisting uncomfortably. She poured herself a shot of vodka and tossed it back. Wincing, she poured more vodka into the cup and added some soda. She began chugging that back too, no interest in pacing herself.  
  
Bobby suddenly appeared at her side, reaching for a cup of his own. “Ali okay?”  
  
Elizabeth side eyed him as she finished her drink. She immediately began pouring herself a new one as she said, “She’s fine. Nose isn’t broken.”  
  
Bobby shifted. “She gonna break up with him?”  
  
Elizabeth shook her head. “Nah, I don’t think so. I mean, she’s obviously upset, but she loves him.” She took another drink. “I still think he’s an idiot. I mean you spend so many years fighting, but you don’t have enough spatial awareness to realize your girlfriend’s behind your elbow?”  
  
“What, like you’ve never accidentally hit someone before?” Bobby challenged.  
  
“If I hit someone, it’s no accident. My limbs go exactly where I tell them to.” Her point was undercut by her suddenly losing her balance and windmilling forward. She spilled some of her drink down Bobby’s front. “Shit.”  
  
He laughed. “Yeah. You’re the picture of grace Nichols.” Bobby grabbed a towel and started wiping off his front. Distantly, Elizabeth noticed he still wasn’t wearing a shirt. He looked nice shirtless. She shook her head and went to refill her cup.  
  
“Woah,” Bobby grabbed the cup from her hand. “Maybe you should slow down.”  
  
Elizabeth wrestled the cup back. “Maybe you should catch up.”  
  
“Is that a challenge?” Bobby laughed.  
  
“Yeah.” Somehow, that worked. Bobby grabbed the vodka and poured himself a shot.  
  
They went back and forth, matching each other shot for shot until Johnny and Ali came back downstairs. Neither of them were crying, and Elizabeth considered this a win. She threw up her hands. “Ali, you’re back.” She dropped her voice to a comically loud stage whisper. “Is everything okay with you two?”  
  
Ali laughed as Johnny scowled. “Yeah, Elizabeth, we’re fine.”  
  
“Not that it’s any of your business.” Johnny muttered. Ali shot him a look. Clearly, he was on thin ice.  
  
“Jeez, you smell like a liquor cabinet. How many drinks have you had?” Elizabeth looked back at Bobby, who shrugged.  
  
“I think like, 5? I lost count. You should do shots with us!” Ali shook her head.  
  
“Oh no, I think it’s time we went to bed. Party’s died down,” Elizabeth looked around. It sure had. The Cobras and the girls were the only ones still hanging out. What time even was it? “I’m tired.”  
  
Elizabeth frowned, but followed Ali to the stairs. She half walked, half stumbled down the steps. In the basement there were piles of blankets and pillows lying all over the floor. Elizabeth plopped herself down onto the closest blanket. Bobby flopped down next to her. Well, he tried to lay next to her, but he ended up more or less on top of her.  
  
“Get off,” Elizabeth whined, pushing uselessly at Bobbys’ dead weight on top of her.  
  
Bobby groaned, flopping over onto his back. “Not my fault, you were in the way.”  
  
“I was in the way?” Elizabeth asked indignantly. “You’re drunk.”  
  
Bobby gasped, offended. “You’re drunk.”  
  
Johnny threw a pillow at them. “You’re both drunk morons. Shut up and go to sleep.”  
  
They both pouted. “Asshole.” Elizabeth muttered.  
  
Bobby laughed. “Ass.” Elizabeth laughed too, and the two of them laughed hysterically until they were being pelted with pillows by the rest of the group.  
  
“Go. To. Sleep.” Ali grumbled, enunciating each word with effort.  
  
“Fine fine, don’t get your panties in a wad.” Elizabeth shot back. “Goodnight,” she added a second later, before shifting into a more comfortable position and falling asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a firm believer that Ali was also into the whole ace degenerate party scene, or she and Johnny wouldn't have dated for as long as they did. Also, I am in no way approving of the way Johnny is acting. Jealousy is a disease. Get well soon, Johnny.  
>   
> Let me know what you think! Also, let me know if you have any suggestions, I wanna write but y'all wanna read!


	7. First Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back bitches. Sorry this took 1,000 years, finals week was murder and it took me a minute to recover. However! I am on break now and I've been doing a good amount of back writing so I should be posting with more frequency from now on.

When she was getting ready for the first day of her junior year, Elizabeth changed her outfit five times. She put her hair in a ponytail, then a bun, then she curled it, and then she put it back into a ponytail (but not before agonizing over which scrunchie to use until her eyes crossed).  
  
She hated how nervous she was. Having friends in Ali and the rest of them should have made this easier but it didn’t. What if they didn’t have any classes together? What if her teachers hated her? What if they had all their classes together and then they had a falling out and she didn’t have any friends at all because she put all her eggs in one basket? 

“Hurry up Elizabeth! You’ll be late!” Her mom called from downstairs and she looked at the clock. 

Shit. She _was_ gonna be late. 

She grabbed her bag and took off down the stairs, barely stopping to offer a “Bye Mom!” as she flew out the door. 

“Wait! Honey, aren’t you going to eat breakfast?” Her mom fussed over her clothes, picking lint from her top. 

“No, Mom, I don’t have time. They’re gonna assign me some kind of school tour guide buddy thing and I need to get there early.” 

“Okay, well, have a good day sweetheart.” Elizabeth smiled. 

“I will mom. Bye.” Her mom caught her arm again as she turned to go.

“Gimme a kiss.” 

“Mom!” she whined stomping a foot. 

“You’re not too old to give your loving mother a kiss, now pucker up.” 

“Jesus Mom,” she muttered, but she bent down to kiss her on the cheek anyway. 

“Thank you. Now get out of here, you’re going to be late!” 

“Bye, mom!” And she took off out the door. 

\-- 

Elizabeth pulled up to the school with 20 minutes to spare. As she rushed inside, she passed the group all hanging out on the guys' bikes. 

“Elizabeth! What’s up?” Ali called.

“Hey, guys! Sorry I really can’t talk. I have to get to the office.” 

“Oh, Johnny was just about to head that way, he can show you where it is!” Ali offered, and Elizabeth regarded Johnny who sighed and reluctantly hopped off his bike, giving Ali a kiss on the cheek. 

“Why do you have to go to the office? In trouble already, Ace Degenerate?” Lucy asked from her place under Jimmy’s arm. 

“Nah, they want me to be some new kid’s tour guide like any idiot can’t find their way around the school. There are only two buildings,” Johnny scoffed, and Elizabeth’s heart sank. 

“ _You’re_ the office aide?” She asked incredulously. 

“ _You’re_ the new- oh come on,” Johnny groaned as the rest of the group laughed. 

“Aw," the group snickered.

“It’s like fate,” Ali giggled. 

“Did you plan this?” Johnny accused. 

“I meet you like 2 weeks ago how the fuck would I have planned this?” Elizabeth retorted. 

“Okay guys, chill out,” Bobby intervened. “You can get along for the five minutes you’ll have to spend walking from the office back to us, now go.” Bobby gave Johnny a little shove shooing them both off to the office. 

Elizabeth’s scowl matched Johnny’s as they storm off to the office together, side by side and deadly silent.

\--

It turned out they wouldn’t get a chance to go back to the group. They spent twenty minutes patiently listening as the office manager Ms. Daniels went over every little relevant (and irrelevant) detail of life at the school: the minutiae of Elizabeth’s schedule, which building to go to, the dress code for classes, the dress code for gym, the policy on the use of lockers, the policy on taking backpacks to class. Elizabeth nodded so much she felt like her head was going to bobble right off her shoulders. 

When she finally finished Elizabeth and Johnny burst out onto the mostly empty walkway. 

“Jesus Christ,” Elizabeth chuckled. “Like I needed the entire fucking history of this place just to go to class.” 

Johnny didn’t laugh, just side-eyed her and said, “We’re not friends Ickles okay? Just because Ali likes you for some unknown reason and you’ve got the hots for Bobby doesn’t mean I’m gonna sit here and joke with you.” 

Elizabeth was so offended she didn’t even know which point to start with. “I do not have ‘the hots’ for Bobby.” Well, that definitely wasn’t the one, Johnny smirked zeroing in on her discomfort on the Bobby topic.

“So I didn’t see you all snuggled up on Bobby in Jimmy’s basement the other night? I must need to get my vision checked.”

She flushed, remembering Bobby’s warm presence along her side, his leg slung over her own, the way his hair had tickled her cheek, then scowled. She was not going to talk about this with _Johnny_. “It's- that’s not- we were _drunk_ okay? And what business is it of yours anyway?” Johnny just smirked, smugly claiming victory and she huffed. “Also my name is Nichols, like, with an N?” 

“Yeah, but Ickles suits you better. You know, on account of how you’re icky.” 

“What are you, five?” Her eyes were beginning to hurt from how much she was rolling them.

“No,” he retorted, childishly, “I’m just over you and how you keep sticking yourself where you don’t belong. Ali almost broke up with me that night because of you.” 

“She did not almost break up with you.” Elizabeth spat back, mind racing to keep up with the 17 different directions Johnny was taking this argument. “And even if she had, it wouldn’t have been my fault, _you_ were the one that hit her.”

“It so would have been your fault.” 

“How is it my fault that you punched your girlfriend in the face?” She asked indignantly.

“It’s your fault she almost broke up with me over it, all that time you spent in the bathroom trying to convince her to dump me,” Johnny insisted, and she snorted. 

“I didn’t tell her to break up with you, asshole. I was cleaning the blood off her face.” 

He actually looked surprised at this, like he had expected that Elizabeth would really try to sabotage the relationship of two people she’d known less than a month. “You didn’t?” 

She crossed her arms.”I’m not a homewrecker, Johnny. Ali’s no pushover, if you really were abusing her she’d dump you in a heartbeat.” 

Johnny sat in stunned silence for a moment before he turned on one heel and started walking away. 

She watched him go, not eager to join him, and he seemed to sense that she wasn't following. “Hey Ickles, You coming or what?” 

“Why should I go with you?” She hedged. “Any idiot can find their way around this place, right?” 

“Look unless you got hearing problems you heard Ms. Daniels say that I have to _drop you off_ at each of your classes or I don’t get credit for this. So come on, Mrs. Landstrom doesn’t tolerate tardiness in 11th grade English.” And he was off again. 

Elizabeth rolled her eyes but jogged to catch up with his long strides. 

\--

The rest of the day continued pretty smoothly. Johnny appeared at each of her classes almost scarily fast and took off the second he saw her, not bothering to check if she was keeping up. He played the nice golden boy for each of her teachers and they all melted for it. 

Well, all but one. Mr. Caldwell, the biology teacher, seemed to hate Johnny’s guts. She couldn’t puzzle out why until Bobby leaned over to tell her how Johnny had stolen a load of lab equipment last year and used it to set off a small explosion in the library, which he paid for with a month’s detention and the wonderful job of her personal West Valley High tour guide. 

It turned out the only class she _didn’t_ share with any of her newfound friends was her study hall period at the end of the day. It turned out to be a fairly dull period. Everyone around her spent the entire period making jokes and throwing paper airplanes which Mrs. Drake, the school librarian, was too old and too blind to notice. 

Still, fifty boring-ass minutes later the bell was ringing and she was out the door, no Johnny to join her since the day was over and he was freed from his office aide duties. Elizabeth made her way out to the parking lot, hoping she would run into Ali and get invited somewhere so she wouldn’t have to go home and recount the entire day to her mother. 

Luckily, Ali seemed to have a perfect radar for two things: bullshit and Elizabeth’s whereabouts at all times. “Elizabeth! Hey!”

She broke out into a smile. “Hey, Ali.” 

“How was your first day?” 

“Well first days at a new school all the way across the country where you know practically no one are famously fun, as you know, and this one is no different.” Elizabeth blurt out, then winced. “That sounded bitter didn’t it? It was fine honestly, much better than I thought it would be.” 

Ali pursed her lips, considering, and Elizabeth’s shoulders tensed up. She’d said the wrong thing, and now Ali was freaked out. “You look like someone who needs a trip to the mall, take me in your fancy car?” 

Elizabeth huffed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, sure. Anyone else gonna join us?” It was always some mixture of their little group.

“Nah. I think we oughta get some one on one time in.” 

\--

Once they reached the mall they made a beeline for the food court. They each got an Orange Julius, _Thank god for chain restaurants_ , she thought, and sat down in a booth.

Then the grilling began. 

“Okay, Nichols, something is up. Spill.” Ali insisted, and Elizabeth only hesitated for a moment before she gave in. 

She told Ali everything: her frustration with the move, how she felt constantly out of place in L.A., how none of her friends had returned her calls since she got out here. “I mean, they act like I wanted to move out here. I don’t like it any more than they do! And what? They’ll drop me just because I’m a little far away? It sucks.”

She stabbed at her drink with the straw. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you guys taking me in, I do, I just. I miss Augusta, I miss my home. I miss karate. You know I still haven’t found a single dojo that’ll let girls practice? I mean Jesus, I thought L.A. was supposed to be all progressive and shit.”

“I get it,” Ali said gently. “It sucks being uprooted. And if your friends are shitty enough to blow you off then screw them, you deserve way better.” Elizabeth smiled at this, but secretly felt a little insecure. How could Ali be so sure of her character when they barely knew each other? Ali could read her in a way no one else she had ever met did. It prickled uncomfortably under her skin, that feeling of being perceived. 

“As for karate, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think you may be better off without it. All it does is make people violent.” 

Elizabeth opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, some guy with dark hair and unfair green eyes leaned against their table. “Hey ladies, how’s it going?” 

Elizabeth and Ali rolled their eyes in sync. 

“We’re fine, and yourself?” Ali responded cooly. 

“Pretty good, pretty good. Just saw you from across the way and thought I’d see if I could convince you to give me that number of yours.” 

Ali raised an eyebrow at her and Elizabeth realized with a start that the guy was talking to her. 

“You want my number?” She asked, a little surprised. 

“Yeah, thought maybe I could take you out sometime if you’re into that.” He grinned, and she had to admit, if she were in any better of a mood, that grin would have made her melt, and yet... 

“Sorry, uh,” she trailed off, unsure of his name. 

“Charlie.” 

“Sorry, Charlie, but I think I’m gonna have to pass.” 

He sighed but pushed off the table. “Well, hate to hear that.” He scribbled something down on a napkin and placed it on the table in front of her. “Call me if he doesn’t treat you right.” he winked, and he was off before she could correct him.

“Saving yourself for someone?” Ali teased. 

“What?” Elizabeth asked, lost.

“Come on, you can't be blind. That guy is a _fox_. There’s no way you turn down a guy like that unless you have someone else on your mind. Is it Bobby?” She leaned forward, excitement creeping into her voice. 

Elizabeth blushed. 

“It is!” Ali crowed. “I totally knew it! I saw you two in Jimmy’s basement. I mean who didn’t? You two would be so _cute_ together!” Ali squealed. 

Elizabeth rubbed her hand over her face. Why did everyone make such a big deal of this? So they happened to sleep next to each other when they were wasted. Big deal. Dutch and Tommy were _spooning_ the next day and no one said a goddamn word about that. 

“C’mon,” Ali needled. “It’s not a bad thing if you like Bobby, okay? You two would be totally precious together.” 

“Could you keep your voice down?” Elizabeth protested. “People are looking.” 

Ali gave her a look, one that told her she would get no peace until she gave in and talked about Bobby. 

“I don’t like him, okay? I mean, he’s cute and all-” Ali bounced in her seat. “But I _barely know him._ ” Elizabeth finished severely. “I don’t want to be that girl who rolls into town and starts going with the first boy she meets.” 

“Oh please,” Ali scoffed. “No one will care if you start going with Bobby. Besides, he’ll totally defend your honor if they do, he’s a gentleman like that,” she giggled.

“Whatever, Ali,” she groaned, but she had to smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New updates will come faster I _promise._
> 
> let me know what you think!


	8. Strike Hard

Two weeks after the first day of school, Elizabeth still hadn’t found a dojo to study at. Somehow, in all of the Valley, there wasn’t a single sensei who was willing to take on a female student, even one who already had her blackbelt. The condescending conversations she found herself having again and again set her teeth on edge. It’s all she can do to not start swinging when another man looked at her with that faux-pitying, condescending smile and encouraged her to find a more suitable sport, like volleyball or cheerleading. 

“Women just aren’t built for fighting,” the man in the blue (fucking _blue_!) gi told her that Saturday, bending down to talk to her like she was 6 and not 16. 

When she got home that afternoon, she slammed the door so hard an antique frame fell off the wall and broke. 

_Whoops._

Oh well. Her dad made enough money, they could just replace it. She stomped up to her room without bothering to pick up the destroyed frame and sat down hard on her bed.

She stared up at the ceiling for a while, stewing in her anger, until the phone began to ring.

“Hello?” Elizabeth assumed it was Ali. It always was. 

“Elizabeth?” It wasn’t Ali. It was Lucy. 

“Hey, Lucy. What’s up?” Elizabeth asked, picking at her bedspread.

“Risky Business is playing at the drive-in tonight, and some of us are gonna go. You wanna come?” 

Elizabeth hesitated. Ali could read her like a book, she’d know something was up, and she wouldn’t leave Elizabeth alone until she talked about it. She didn’t want to talk about it. 

Perhaps sensing her hesitation, Lucy pushed, “ _Please_? Ali’s bailing on us tonight, some work event she has to go to with her dad. We need more girls to balance out.” 

Elizabeth sighed loudly, like Lucy was being a pain, but inwardly felt relieved. “ _Fine_ ,” she said, drawing out the ‘i’, “I’d love to,” she added, not wanting to seem ungrateful. 

“Excellent.”

“Do you want me to drive, or–”

“Nope!” Lucy said brightly, “Bobby’ll pick you up.”

“Neat little plan,” Elizabeth noted, a hint of suspicion in her voice. “Who else is riding with us?”

“Just you two I think,” Elizabeth could hear the mischievous giggle Lucy was trying to suppress, and honestly who was she fooling?

“How many cars are we taking?” Elizabeth wondered. The few times they had gone to the drive-in, they took as few cars as was legally possible so as to not get separated from each other.

“Two,” Lucy hedged, and Elizabeth knew there was something else to the story. “Listen Elizabeth I gotta go–”

“Wait, who all is going?” None of their cars could fit Lucy, Susan, Barbara, Jimmy, Tommy, Bobby, Dutch, _and_ Johnny. 

“Well, it’s you and me, and BobbyandJimmy,” Lucy said in a rush before hanging up the phone, leaving Elizabeth to stare dumbfounded at the receiver. 

Lucy and Jimmy were inseparable when they were together practically glued together at the mouth. Which meant if it was just the four of them… 

Elizabeth was going on a double date.

\--

Exactly how to get ready for a double date you’d agreed to under duress and a fair amount of manipulation was lost on Elizabeth, but eventually, she settled on a skirt and Led Zeppelin shirt combo which she hoped would keep Lucy off her back and not raise suspicion with Bobby. She figured he knew next to nothing about their set up, and she’d appreciate it if he weren’t brought in on the rumors that they were set to be Teen Beat’s next Couple of the Month. 

He showed up right on time, wearing his blue Cobra Kai jacket and a polo– the same one he’d worn to Jimmy’s party she noticed distantly– and she raised an eyebrow. This was more effort than he usually put in, which made her wonder. Did he know this was a setup? Did he _want_ it to be a set up? She shook off that thought and walked with him to his car. 

They fell into an easy conversation on the way to the drive-in. She hadn’t realized how _funny_ Bobby could be until she had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep her loud ass laugh from echoing around the car when he’d made a joke about their nice, but very very strange Pre-Calc teacher Mr. Scarber.

He’d given her a sidelong glance at this, looking just pleased as punch that he had made her laugh, and she suddenly felt warm all over. 

\--

When they arrived and found Lucy and Jimmy, Elizabeth grabbed Lucy and suggested they hit up the concession stand, planning to lay into her. The plan was waylaid, however, by the guys offering to come along. Stupid considerate dates. 

Just as she was debating the relative merits of Rocky versus Rocky III with Bobby (he said that the third film was better which was, coincidentally, insane because nothing beat the original), she felt a hand smack her ass. She turned to Bobby first, confused because she hadn’t seen his hand move and because he didn't seem the type, then turned around to see the boy behind her snickering with his friends. 

Elizabeth only had to look at him once for the rage she’d been feeling at the world for being forced to move cross country, for not being able to find a dojo, for Johnny, to condense into rage for this one guy, and she was on him before anyone could figure out what was happening. 

The stand erupted in pandemonium as she lifted her fist back again and again to pound into the stupid asshole’s face. She could hear people yelling at her to stop, hear him crying out in pain, and hear herself screaming horrible things at him- things that honestly didn’t even apply, but she didn’t stop. 

Finally, a strong set of hands got hold of her arms and yanked her back, unfazed by her struggle to get free and return to her handiwork. 

“Get off–” she spat out. “Let go!”

When she managed to break free, she took stock of the scene around her. Elizabeth could almost laugh at the horrified looks on everyone’s faces, until she looked down and saw the guy on the ground, moaning and holding his bloody, mangled face. _Had she really done that?_

She’s shaken from her thoughts when the drive-in manager comes at them, hollering about police and _charges_ , and Elizabeth finally had the good sense to run. 

Bobby was right alongside her, holding her arm like she really might be stupid enough to go back and get herself arrested, but she didn’t shake off his hand, just hopped in the car. They sat there for a moment, breathing hard, until Jimmy came up to the car and explained the aftermath. 

“I don’t think he’ll actually call the police, but you’d better take her home just in case,” he said. Under normal circumstances, Elizabeth would have been irritated that he was talking about her like she wasn’t even there, but she _felt_ like she wasn’t there. All she could focus on was the way that guy had looked, so helpless on the ground, so bloody. 

Bobby said something to Jimmy that she didn’t quite catch, then drove off. 

The entire ride home the car was dead silent. Elizabeth didn’t dare say anything, she just stared at her hands and waited for Bobby’s inevitable lecture. 

When they reached her house, Bobby killed the engine and looked over at her disapproval featuring strongly in his expression alongside something else she couldn’t quite make out. After a long moment, he reached for her right hand and examined the knuckles. She couldn't tell if the blood is the guy’s, or her own. Both, probably. 

“Why don’t I come in, help clean you up?” Something in his tone told her he wasn’t asking, but telling.

Elizabeth nodded, stomach twisting horribly. She couldn’t quite figure out why she felt so nervous, why Bobby’s disapproval made her feel ashamed rather than irked.

They walked side by side, silent up to the front door, and Elizabeth fumbled the keys when she saw the way the blood from her hands had smeared on the metal. In the end, Bobby took the keys and opened the door. 

Elizabeth stayed quiet, unable to speak, and led him up to her room. She crossed over to the bathroom, refused to give him time to examine her life, and pulled a first aid kit from under the sink.  
  
He had to pull the kit from her hands, which had begun to shake. Slowly, gently, he cleaned her knuckles with peroxide and a cotton ball. She winced at the sting, resisted the urge to pull back.  
  
Elizabeth surprised herself by speaking. “Remember that party, at Jimmy’s house, when Johnny tried to fight that guy for hitting on Ali?” 

From where she was sitting, Elizabeth could see Bobby frown, but he didn’t say anything. He just nodded. 

“When I was cleaning Ali up in the bathroom,” Her chest tightened at the memory, and the next words that came out were rough. “She said Johnny and I were a lot alike, that we both had this fight in us. At first I was so insulted you know,” she laughed dryly.

“Like, how could she insinuate I was anything like that asshole,” Bobby looked up at this, ready to defend his friend, but she pressed on. “But then she told me, she said we both have this–” she paused, recalling her exact words, “ _fighting spirit_.”

Bobby huffed a laugh at this, pulling out a bandage to begin wrapping up her hand. Elizabeth guessed he saw it too, the way they both raised their fists at any problem in their path.  
“She said if we don’t learn to control our anger– it’ll consume us.”

Bobby looked up from his work, face serious. His eyes searched her face for a moment, and she felt uncomfortably seen, exposed. Finally, he looked back down, eyebrows drawn together, and asked, “So what are you asking?” 

What _was_ she asking? She guessed she had wanted to know if he thought Ali was right, if she and Johnny really were all that similar, but the more she talked, the more she realized that wasn’t what had been bugging her. 

She laughed, feeling a little stupid. “I guess I don’t know.”

Bobby finally released her right hand and moved on to the left. She flexed it, looking down at the bandaged hand in wonder. It looked like he had wrapped her hand up for boxing. When he picked up the left one, she winced and realized she may have done real damage to her wrist. 

“Do you think she’s right? That I, y’know, may be in danger of being consumed by my anger or whatever?” Elizabeth asked, suddenly eager to know Bobby’s opinion.

Bobby sighed and released her hand, reaching for the ace bandage in the box. As he wrapped her wrist, he spoke. “Kreese always tells us to face our enemies without mercy. That any man who challenges us is our enemy and to dispatch them quickly and efficiently.”

Elizabeth frowned, unsure of what this had to do with her. 

“Johnny took to that real easily. Other than maybe Dutch he’s probably the most vicious in our class. To him, to all of us I guess, viciousness is a strength, a tool. And he uses it frequently, in and out of the dojo.” Bobby released her wrist, grabbing both of her hands in his own and looking into her eyes seriously. 

“I can see that in you too. This, desire to meet every problem you have head-on and destroy it.”

Elizabeth broke the eye contact and looked down where their hands were joined. When she spoke, her voice was cracked and rough from disuse. “So?”

Bobby sighed, “So. Just be careful, is all I’m saying. One day you may face a fight that lands you in worse trouble than bloody knuckles and a sprained wrist.”

Elizabeth frowned, that familiar feeling of indignation rising up in her. The desire to prove that she wasn’t a weak, helpless little girl. That she could handle herself in a fight just as good as Dutch or Johnny or any of the rest of them. But Bobby didn’t give her the chance to speak. 

He patted her hands and stood up. “You’re all good to go.”

Elizabeth smiled, flexing her bandaged hands. This would be a treat to explain to her parents. “Nice patch job Dr. Brown,” she teased. 

Bobby chuckled and started for the door, walking backward as he quipped, “That’s me. Call me for all your post ring match needs. The number is 818-467–” he didn’t get to finish the number, though, because he smacked into her bed and tumbled to the floor. 

She burst out laughing as he jumped up and dusted himself off, watching as he continued to walk backward toward the door. 

“Just turn around and walk normally, dumbass,” Elizabeth said, running over to grab his shoulder and correct his path before he ran into her desk. 

“A good doctor never takes his eyes off the patient, Nichols,” he responded in a superior tone, as if anything he said made any sense at all. 

“Oookay General Hospital,” Elizabeth snickered, hands in his shirt as she pushed him out of her room. “Clearly you need to get your head checked– hey watch the stairs!” 

She pulled him toward her sharply, and he collided into her as they both narrowly avoided tumbling down the marble steps. His hands came to rest on her waist as they steadied themselves and she looked up into his eyes, shocked by his closeness. Elizabeth suddenly found herself wishing he wouldn’t leave. That he would stay here with her, maybe spend the night, and she could maybe even feel his hair brushing her cheek again. 

“You’ll probably want to go down the stairs normally if you don’t want to have to go see a real doctor,” she said lightly, hoping her voice didn’t betray what she was thinking.  
“Probably,” he said, voice low, and suddenly she wondered what he was thinking. 

He seemed content to stay there, and his eyes darted downward. She wondered if he wanted to kiss her as much as she wanted to kiss him. She blushed and took a step back.

“I’ll walk you out?” she asked, inwardly kicking herself when she saw his expression fall ever so slightly. 

At the door, she turned to him and flashed a smile. “Thanks for cleaning me up, Dr. Brown,” she said, attempting to bring back some of the levity from earlier. 

His smile, though somewhat said, was still there, and still made her stomach flutter. “No problem. Don’t go getting into any more fights now, you hear?” 

His hand came up to brush some hair behind her ear, and Elizabeth thought _fuck it_ and leaned in. 

She found that his lips were just as soft as they looked. Her bandaged hand came up to grasp the front of his shirt as he deepened the kiss. After a moment, his hands found her hips and pushed her back against the door, his mouth claiming her own. She let out a soft noise when her back hit the door, body thrumming with entirely too much energy to care how embarrassing that was.  
  
When they finally needed some air, the pair broke apart and gasped. Like no shit, actually _gasped_. 

Elizabeth laughed a little with the ridiculousness of it. Here she was making out with the boy she’d spent weeks trying to convince her friends she wasn’t interested in. Before he could ask why she was laughing, Elizabeth pulled Bobby back to her, claiming his mouth with as much power as she could muster from her place against the dark wood of the door. 

They kissed a little desperately, _like water to a man on fire_ , Elizabeth thought, suppressing a giddy giggle. Laughing really was not a good look at a time like this. 

When they broke apart again, Bobby rested his forehead against her own, breathing hard. 

“Was starting to worry you weren’t into me, thought I had another Lucy on my hands,” he said voice rough, which gave her a little thrill. 

Elizabeth laughed breathlessly, “Pretty impossible not to be into this,” she indicated him, dragging her hand ever so slightly down his front. “But I think everyone knew before me, at least the girls did.” 

Bobby laughed, low and almost under his breath, and brought a hand up to cup her jaw, thumbing swiping over her cheek. Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the sound of the garage door opening, which brought Elizabeth quickly back to herself. 

Her eyes darted around, taking in the scene. Her parents had been out all day and she had no explanation for the broken antique frame, her bandaged hands, or the boy standing in front of her, whose pink lips and flushed cheeks surely matched her own, and would give away what they were doing to anyone with two eyes and a working brain. 

“You gotta go!” Elizabeth hissed, pushing him back off of her and turning to open the door. 

“Bu-what?” Bobby asked, lips pulling into an adorable pout that she wanted to kiss away but was forced to ignore in the face of a much bigger issue. 

“My parents are home, I’m not allowed to have boys here when they’re not, _you have to go_. My dad will lose his mind if he finds you here,” Elizabeth insisted, pushing him out the door.  
  
The word “dad” seemed to get through to him, his eyes widened in panic and he let himself be pushed out the door. 

“I’ll call you later?” he asked, and she nodded furiously before slamming the door shut and leaning back against it. 

She let her head drop back against the wood only a moment before she sprung into action, scooping up the frame, and dashing up the stairs. Hopefully, her mom wouldn’t notice it was missing long enough to let her come up with a viable excuse for its disappearance.

Once she got to her room, she wrenched open the closet door and unceremoniously shoved the frame into its depths. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard steps toward her room, but she relaxed when they continued past. 

Elizabeth didn’t bother changing before she flopped onto her bed. She brought one hand up to her lips, smiling at the memory of the kiss and thinking about how Ali was definitely gonna "I told you so" her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so originally this chapter was going to be after the next chapter (which I will post in the next couple of days barring some accident that keeps me from being able to use a computer), but I changed my mind! I hope y'all enjoyed.


	9. No Mercy Redux

The next time Elizabeth went to Cobra Kai, the Sunday after she kissed Bobby, she didn’t go in the middle of a class. Bobby gave her intel on the class schedule, so 30 minutes after the last class of the day was set to finish, a class for advanced students that always left Kreese in a good mood, she stepped into the dojo. 

Even though her wrist was still healing, Elizabeth had wanted to take the wrap off, but Bobby told her not to bother. Sensei Kreese would be impressed by her fighting, he said, that she showed no mercy to a creep who deserved a beating. Of course, they both knew that wasn’t what went down, but Kreese didn’t need to know that. 

The front room of the dojo was empty, the strong scent of sweat lingering in the air, and Elizabeth called out hesitantly, hoping she hadn’t waited too long and missed Kreese. 

It turned out luck was on her side, Kreese strode out from the back office, still in his sleeveless black gi, presumably to send her away. “We’re closed, you can enroll your student tomorr– oh,” he said when he spotted her. “You’re back. Looking for another fight, girlie? I’m afraid Mr. Lawrence isn’t here.” 

Elizabeth squared her shoulders, forcing them down and away from her ears. She would not rise to the bait. “I came to inquire again about enrolling in classes.” 

Kreese smirked and opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. “I know I lost the fight against Johnny,” the words tasted like dirt in her mouth, but Bobby had coached her on exactly what to say to get in his sensei’s good graces. “I let my guard down, it was a stupid decision. My old sensei was soft, he cared more about _honor_ than winning in a fight.” 

She forced herself to swallow around the wrongness that were these words. She knew everything she was saying was bullshit, but she also knew that Cobras were the best in the valley and, more importantly, her last chance to get to practice karate. 

“I need to train here, so I can get an edge. So when I face enemies out there,” she jerked her head toward the door, and Kreese tilted his head, intrigued. “I can fight to win.” 

Kreese didn’t say anything for a moment. Instead, he walked around her in a wide circle, surveying her the same way someone might appraise livestock. She kept her chin up and her eyes forward, not bothering to try and turn with him, not wanting to seem weak. 

When he finally spoke, he didn’t address anything she’d said. “What happened to your hands?” 

She didn’t bother looking at the bandages. “Some asshole invaded my personal space at the drive-in,” Elizabeth finally turned her head to meet his eyes. “So I taught him a lesson in respect.” 

“Is that so?” He smiled, that same nasty smile he’d given her the first time she came in, and she wondered how he managed to get any students at all, being such a fucking creep. 

“Yes, sir.” 

“And how did that turn out for you?” 

“I got kicked out. The manager threatened to call the police.” She choked a little on the memory, thinking about how furious her parents would have been if she’d gotten arrested. 

Kreese nodded almost sympathetically. “He couldn’t mind his own business, could he?” 

It became clear that this was not a rhetorical question. “No, sir.”

“I’ve dealt with that more than my fair share of times. People these days really don’t know how to deal with their own issues, calling for mommy to come clean up their messes. It’s pathetic.”

Elizabeth nodded curtly at this. 

“But you don’t call your mommy when you have an issue, do you?” 

“No, sir.”

“No,” he repeated. “You face your problems and dispatch them.”

“Yes, sir.” Despite her reservations, Elizabeth felt herself standing a little straighter under the approving tone of his voice. 

“A man faces you and he is your enemy, you understand that, don’t you?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“And do you show an enemy mercy?”

“No sir.” 

“No. Because whether you are on the mat or on the street, mercy is a weakness, and weakness gets you killed. Understand that?”

“Yes, sir.” 

“Yes, sensei” he corrected, and Elizabeth broke her concentration and relaxed her stance. 

“Is there a problem?” 

Elizabeth fought back a smile. “No, sensei.” 

Kreese nodded shortly. “Good. Classes meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5 pm and Saturdays at 11 am. Show up at least 30 minutes early on Tuesday to get your gi. Bring your belt. You’ll have to change in the guest bathroom, there is no girl’s locker room here. I expect you to be able to keep up with the class, fall behind and you will be cut from the team immediately. Miss class and you will be cut from the team. Whine, and you will be cut from the team. No weakness will be tolerated, I won’t go easy on you because you’re a girl.” 

Elizabeth did smile at that. She would prove to Kreese and all those other assholes that she was just as capable on the mat as any man. 

“Payment will be due on the first of every month. Expect to compete, as all my black belts do. You will need to fill out all the proper paperwork after class on Tuesday. Do you have any problems with that?” 

“No, sensei.” 

“Good. Dismissed. See you on Tuesday.” And with that, he turned on one heel and disappeared into his office. 

Elizabeth could hardly believe it. She had a dojo to practice in. She would get to compete. Sure, Kreese was bound to be hard on her, probably harder than he was on any other student. She would have to work her ass off to stay on this team, but she was good with that. She liked hard work, and she relished the opportunity to prove herself. 

She stepped outside, feeling for all the world as if she could float home, and Bobby pushed off the wall to greet her. 

He had let the other guys go ahead to dinner and stayed behind to wait on her. He figured that they could catch up to celebrate if it was good news, and comfort her if it was bad. 

“So?”

Elizabeth’s face split into a wide grin, “I’m in. I’m on the team!” 

“Alright!” Bobby exclaimed, scooping her into a tight hug and spinning her around while she laughed.

“I knew you had it in you,” he added solemnly. “I never doubted you for a second.”

Elizabeth smacked his arm lightly. “You better not have. I’m gonna be the best on that team by a mile.”

“Is that right?” Bobby said, suppressing a laugh. 

“Oh yeah. You guys better watch your backs, I’m coming for your spots.” 

Bobby let his laugh out now, slinging an arm around her shoulder. “The rest of the guys are at The Orient Express,” he nodded to a restaurant across the street. “Wanna join them to celebrate?” 

“Definitely. I cannot wait to rub this in Johnny’s face.” 

Bobby’s smile dropped, and Elizabeth took off in a run before he could tell her not to. 

\--

She beat Bobby to the restaurant, bursting in with a flushed face, and rushed over to the table. 

“Ah, the girl of the hour!” Tommy said, and Elizabeth grinned, too giddy to address the sarcasm. “So?”

She bit her lip, practically vibrating out of her skin with excitement. “I’m in!”

The table erupted as the all guys congratulated her. Well, almost all the guys. Johnny looked shell shocked like he never suspected Kreese to let a girl into their dojo. 

Elizabeth looked at him and raised an eyebrow, daring him to say something, but he just scowled and stabbed the food on his plate maliciously. 

Except for Bobby, no one else seemed to notice Johnny’s pissy mood, which didn’t abate until Dutch suggested they all go joyriding on their motorbikes. 

They paid for their food and went outside. While the rest of the guys strapped on their helmets and got on their bikes, Bobby hung back. 

“Thanks for not starting shit with Johnny.”

She sighed like it had been a big burden, but still smiled. “No problem. Kinda didn’t wanna get banned from another LA establishment. The drive-in will be hard enough to explain to my parents.” 

When they’d asked about her hands, Elizabeth had made up some lie about taking a spill while going for a run. It had placated them easily enough, though her mom had reminded her that her running shoes were getting old and that she should probably get some new ones. 

“Yeah, well, still. I’m glad you’re gonna be on the team,” Bobby said sincerely, and Elizabeth felt butterflies in her chest. 

“Bobby! Are you coming or what?” Johnny called out. 

“In a minute, man!” He yelled back and turned toward Elizabeth. “Listen, I gotta–”

“Go!” Elizabeth interrupted. “Seriously, I have my car. Don’t worry about me.” 

Bobby looked unsure. “You can ride with me if you want?”

She shook her head. “No thanks. I’m not one for joyriding on anything without at least two doors.” 

Bobby laughed. “If you’re sure–”

“Totally sure. Go, seriously.”

“Okay.” He said slowly. “See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow,” Elizabeth affirmed. 

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but decided against it. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and hopped on his bike. The guys, who had been circling, roared off. 

Elizabeth briefly put her hand to her cheek before taking it down. She was still within eyesight of the guys, and no way would she let them see her get all mushy over a _cheek kiss_. 

\--

The next morning Elizabeth showed up to school 20 minutes early, practically vibrating with excitement about telling Ali the good news about Cobra Kai. She loitered around the entrance, half lounging on Bobby’s bike while she waited for the blonde to show up. 

When Ali finally did show up, she seemed to have some exciting news of her own and dragged Elizabeth off to the library where the rest of the girls were waiting on them. 

“You’ve been keeping secrets,” Lucy said. 

She couldn’t quite understand the looks on her friends' faces, like excitement mixed with annoyance. “What secrets? I haven’t been keeping any secrets.”

“You and Bobby?” Susan prompted. 

“Oh! Right!” _Shit_. She hadn’t forgotten, not really, she’d just forgotten that this was the kind of thing you called to tell your friends. “We kissed?”

They reacted as if she’d told them they won the lottery. Ali squealed so loud the librarian had to shush her. 

Ali barely lowered her voice to instruct Elizabeth to “Tell. Us. Everything.” 

Elizabeth sighed. “So Saturday afternoon I got a call from Lucy inviting me to go to a drive-in movie with quote ‘some of the group.’ Assuming this group would include more than four people I agreed. It was only then that she told me it was only her, Jimmy, me, and Bobby–”

“I think it’s actually Bobby and I,” Susan said. Ali thwacked her on the arm and Elizabeth soldiered on. 

“And that Bobby and I were going to ride together. Alone.” A chorus of giggles rose up from the group, loud enough to receive another stern warning to be quiet from Mrs. Drake. “Anyway, once we got there we all went to get concessions, and while we were standing in line this total jackoff slapped my ass.” Even the memory made her feel angry. 

“Did he, like, totally defend your honor?” Barabara asked. 

“Something like that. I turned around to give him some sage advice about not touching a girl without her permission, and he somehow ended up on the floor with his face covered in his own blood,” Elizabeth said. Ali looked concerned at this but let her keep speaking. “Once the guy was, well, indisposed, Bobby took me back to my house and offered to clean up my hands.” 

“So sweet,” Ali said, only somewhat sarcastically. 

“Yeah. We went up to my room and he wrapped up my hands,” Elizabeth held up her hand to indicate her bandages. “And then we talked for a while and as I was walking him out he tried to throw himself down the stairs– lucky I was there to catch him, and we had this– moment. Like a capital ‘M’ Moment. His hands were on my hips and we were this close,” She held a hand up in front of her face to show them just how close. The girls all sighed. 

“I knew he wanted to kiss me, but I felt so nervous you know? So I offered to walk him out–” They all groaned comically. “And at the door, we had another ‘Moment’ and I thought ‘what do I have to lose?’ and we kissed.” 

“That’s it?” Ali asked at the same time Susan said “How was it?”

“How do you think it was?” She said. “It was great, he had me all pressed up against the door, at one point we actually had to gasp for air.” Elizabeth found herself leaning forward, having to remind herself that there were people around that could hear her. Back home she’d had so few friends who would be interested in this kind of stuff. She never thought it would be this much fun to share. 

“And then?” Lucy prompted. 

“And then my parents came home and I had to shove him out the front door before they caught us.”

“So what are you guys like, going together now?” Ali asked. 

Elizabeth hesitated. Were they? They hadn’t talked about it, but the way he’d picked her up and swung her around outside the dojo yesterday certainly wasn’t just _friendly_. “I– don’t know.” 

“You don’t _know_?” Lucy asked incredulously. “How can you not know?”

“We never got a chance to talk about it.” Elizabeth could feel herself getting worked up now. “I mean he left so fast and then when he called later all we talked about was Cobra Kai–”

“Cobra Kai?” Ali interrupted. 

“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I went and spoke with Kreese yesterday, he finally agreed to take me on as a student. Bobby was helping me figure out just how to approach him since he had the whole ‘no girls’ policy. We never got around to talking about… us.” 

“You’ve gotta talk to him, I mean, what if he thinks you’re not interested and starts going after someone else?” Barbara said unhelpfully. 

“You really think he would do that?” Elizabeth asked uncertainly. It seemed against his character, but they’d known him much longer than she had. 

“No way,” Ali said, shooting Barbara an icy stare. “He’s totally crazy about you. Plus, it’s not as if you’d go around kissing boys you’re not interested in, right?” 

“Right,” Elizabeth said, but she still felt uncertain. She needed to talk to Bobby like, right now. 

Unfortunately for her, the bell rang, which meant she couldn’t talk to Bobby, not until third period pre-calc. She wondered how many girls were in his first two classes. 

\--

Her first two classes dragged on for what felt like forever. Lucy tried to help by passing her reassuring notes in first period English, but Mrs. Lanstrom, a woman who did not feel particularly moved by the woes of 16 year old’s drama, moved them apart and Elizabeth was forced to stare at the clock and count the minutes while her teacher droned on about participles. 

Second period history was worse. She shared the class with Johnny, Tommy, and Dutch, who managed to be both the key to solving her problem and completely oblivious to it. If anyone knew where Bobby’s head was at in regards to their relationship, they did. 

But Tommy and Dutch had all the subtlety of bulldozers and she would rather die than discuss her relationship woes with Johnny. He would either laugh at her or tell her some insane lie. Or he would tell Bobby how neurotic she was being and totally ruin any chance she had with him. So she had to suffer through another lousy class, staring at the clock and ignoring the lecture on the French and Indian War. 

Finally, _finally_ , it was time for third period. When the bell rang, Elizabeth shot out of the room and down the hall. She was the first one to the classroom, and the very nice, but very strange Mr. Scarber caught her into a conversation about parabolas. She entertained him, not wanting to seem rude, but her eyes kept drifting toward the door. 

Just as her teacher was telling her some boring joke about the x-axis that she was only half-listening to, Bobby came in, and she swore she could feel her heart skip a beat. She gave him a half-hearted laugh and tried to break away. “Listen, Mr. Scarber, this has been great, really, but I need to–” she gestured toward the desks with a thumb. 

“Oh sure, of course.” And he turned back to his notes. 

Bobby’s grin as she was walked over made her stomach flutter. He gestured toward the seat next to him. “I saved you a seat,” he said shyly. 

Elizabeth knew she was smiling too widely but she couldn’t help it. “Thanks.”

There was a pause and then at the same time, “Listen–”

“Sorry,” she laughed and Bobby chuckled. “You go first.” 

“Oh, well, I was just gonna say, um–” he looked nervously down at his hands. “Well, I wanted to ask if you were free tonight? I thought maybe we could go on like a real date, and not one set up by our dimwit friends.” 

The breath that rushed out of her mouth was half sigh of relief and half-laugh. So he did know it was a setup. Or at least, someone had told him later. “Yeah! Yeah. I’m free, I’d love to. Go out.” She said, cringing a little at the stilted delivery. 

Bobby’s eyes lit up. “Great! Great. Well, I can pick–”

He was cut off by the bell and Mr. Scarber calling them to sit in their seats. 

Elizabeth sat down and pulled out her notebook. This, at least, was a class she had to pay attention to. Suddenly, a folded piece of paper landed on her desk. She unfolded it and Bobby had written: “Do you like me? Yes or No” with checkboxes. 

Elizabeth stifled her laugh and looked over at Bobby, who waggled his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes and marked ‘No’ and passed it back to him. If he wanted immature he would get immature. 

She heard and dutifully ignored Bobby’s little gasp of indignation. A couple of seconds later the note landed on her desk again. 

“Well then. I guess I _won’t_ be taking you to Golf N Stuff for pretzels and mini-golf. Maybe I’ll take Lucy instead.” 

This time she couldn’t stop her laugh. Luckily, Mr. Scarber was blissfully ignorant of the note conversation happening between her and Bobby. She wrote “Please, Jimmy would kick your ass for even thinking about it. Pick me up at 7?” and passed it back. 

While Mr. Scarber repeated his x-axis joke to the class for meager laughs, Bobby slid the note onto her desk again. “Please. I could totally take Jimmy. See you then. Wear something hot.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and flipped him off and he laughed quietly. She slipped the note into her pocket so she could show Ali later, and went back to learning about parabolas with a grin on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be a little interlude of Bobby and Elizabeth's date, and then we're gonna jump forward in time a couple of months. let me know what y'all thought! Your kind words give me life.


	10. You're the Best Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> normally I write third person limited from Elizabeth's POV, this one is from Bobby's POV!

Bobby attended the rest of his classes with a spring in his step. He was in such a good mood that Dutch snapping a towel at his ass in the showers after gym didn’t even bother him. He just flipped the blond off and continued about his business. 

When the final bell of the day rang, he filed out with the rest of the school and went to where he and the rest of the Cobras had parked their bikes. Elizabeth was already there, books held to her chest while she chatted with Ali. His heart skipped a beat. Even just in cutoffs and a t-shirt, she was beautiful. Her dark hair seemed to almost glow in the sun.

He walked over, trying to add a little swagger in his step in case she saw, but his steps faltered when she laughed at something Ali said, throwing her head back. Bobby could feel himself smiling like an idiot even though he had no idea what they were talking about. 

Ali caught his eye first, looking between his smile and Elizabeth with raised eyebrows. He shook his head, wordlessly imploring her not to say anything. She smirked and went back to her conversation. 

“And then I told her– oh hi, Bobby,” Elizabeth turned to him with a smile, cutting off whatever story she’d been telling Ali mid-sentence. 

“Hey,” he was smiling too much, he knew, but he couldn’t stop himself. There was a pause as they both fumbled for something to say.

Johnny saved them by sliding up and putting an arm around Ali. “Hey, babe.”

“Hi,” she turned to greet him properly, giving Elizabeth and Bobby a moment alone. 

She was looking at them kiss with a perturbed expression on her face and he had to stifle a laugh. 

“Why people feel the need to suck face in public, I will never understand,” she said, shaking her head as she moved with him over to his bike. 

He laughed. “They’re in _love_ ,” he mocked, drawing out the ‘o’. 

“Ugh. Whatever. How was seventh period?” Elizabeth turned her full attention to him. 

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “English is the absolute worst.”

“Mrs. Lanstrom seriously needs to get laid,” Johny cut in. He nodded curtly at Elizabeth. “Ickles.”

She stiffened, rolling her eyes. “Lawrence.”

“Come over to mine?” Bobby asked Johnny, trying to keep a fight from breaking out this close to his bike. 

“Sure.” He went back to his own bike, giving Ali another kiss before grabbing his helmet. 

Bobby turned to Elizabeth again, who was watching Johnny with a cold look on her face. “We still on for tonight?”

She nodded, tearing her eyes away from Johnny. Bobby’s face split into a grin. “See you later, then.” 

She smiled and let herself be pulled away by Ali.

“What’s tonight?” Bobby tore his eyes away from Elizabeth’s retreating figure to look at Johnny, whose face had gone stony. 

“C’mon, man. Not here. Let’s ride.” Bobby grabbed his helmet and hopped on his bike, eyes following Johnny as he sullenly did the same. 

\--

“What’s tonight?” Johnny asked again in front of Bobby’s house before he’d even removed his helmet. 

Bobby sighed and waited until he’d removed his own helmet and locked his bike to answer. “Elizabeth and I are going to Golf N Stuff.”

Johnny stopped in his tracks on the lawn, wearing the same expression Elizabeth had when she was watching Johnny and Ali kiss, disturbed.“What, like, alone?” 

“Yes, Johnny,” Bobby said, long sufferingly. “Alone.” 

“Like a date?” Johnny asked, sounding like a little kid who’s just been told he wasn’t gonna get dessert. 

“Not like a date,” Bobby said firmly. “A date. I’m gonna wear a nice outfit and pick her up in my car, and then we’re going to get pretzels and play mini-golf. And then I'll take her home and kiss her goodnight.”

Johnny snorted. “Lame date.” 

“Look man, what is your problem?” Bobby snapped.

“What is my problem?” Johnny asked incredulously as if _Bobby_ were the one being unreasonable. “You could have any girl at our school and you have to go after _her_?”

“I don’t understand why you hate her so much.” 

Johnny threw up his hands. “She’s annoying, Bobby! She always buts in where she doesn’t belong, at school, the dojo, with Ali.”

“How has she ‘but in’ with Ali?” he asked, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice. Fighting with Johnny only ever got him a bloody lip, which he generally tried to avoid before dates. 

“She’s put all these ideas in her head. That I’m like, violent or out of control or something.” 

Bobby knew what he was referring to. The fight at Jimmy’s and Elizabeth's and Ali’s sudden and long disappearance into the bathroom. He thought back to what Elizabeth had told him in _her_ bathroom, and it clicked. Whatever Ali had told Johnny that night, he had assumed that it came from Elizabeth and not from her. 

But Johnny knew just as well as Bobby did that Ali didn’t need anyone to tell her that Johnny had been angrier lately. And she definitely didn’t need anyone to tell her it was a problem. 

“You know as well as I do that Ali doesn’t need anyone to put ideas in her head.” Johnny’s jaw ticked, but he let Bobby continue. “She’ll think what she wants and no one can dictate that. Not you, and certainly not Elizabeth. That’s why you like her, man. She’s a firecracker.”

Johnny mulled over Bobby’s words as if weighing his words against Ali’s character. Finally, he nodded reluctantly. “I still don’t get why you like her, man.” 

Bobby felt the strong urge to grab Johnny by the shoulders and shake him. 

“What’s not to like? She’s smart, funny, she doesn’t take anyone’s bullshit. Plus she likes karate, man.” He can see Johnny fighting back a smile. “How many chicks do you know that like karate huh? One.” 

Johnny finally smiled at that, breathing a laugh through his nose. 

“Also,” Bobby added, on a roll, “she’s hot. Very hot. That day on the beach? In that swimsuit? I almost _drowned_.” 

Johnny wrinkled his nose. “Gross, man. I don’t wanna hear about what gets you all hot and bothered.” 

“Oh. You’re gonna hear about it. Do you remember when you first started dating Ali? I had to listen to you go on and on for _hours_.” he put on a pitched up squeal to imitate Johnny. “‘She’s so pretty and her hair is so soft and her eyes are so blue like the ocean–”

Johnny tackled him to the ground and they started wrestling. Bobby eventually got the one up on Johnny, holding him in a headlock until he tapped out. After that, they returned to normal, argument completely forgotten. 

\--

Even with all his whining about how annoying Elizabeth was, Johnny couldn’t put a damper on Bobby’s excitement for their date. He wore his favorite jeans, a yellow polo and, of course, threw his dark blue Cobra jacket over it. 

When he pulled up in front of her house, 15 minutes early, Bobby spent several minutes adjusting his appearance in the reflection in his car window to kill some time. Finally, he took a deep breath to steel himself and walked up to the front door. 

The door flew open the second he knocked, and Elizabeth stood there pretending she hadn’t been waiting on the other side of the door eagerly for ages now. His breath caught in his throat as he took her in. She looked gorgeous. She always did. Even hungover with frizzy chlorine hair he was confident she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. 

Her hair was loose around her shoulders, curled and teased. She wore a denim skirt and her usual band tee, but this one was cropped and hung loosely off one shoulder. She grinned up at him and his heart stuttered in his chest. Her smile, like the rest of her, was beautiful. 

“Hey,” she said, almost breathlessly. 

“Hey,” he said back, grinning widely. “You ready?”

“Totally.” She turned back inside for a moment to call over her shoulder. “Mom! Dad! I’m leaving! Let’s go.”

She tried to usher him quickly toward the car, but before they could get off the porch, her mom appeared from the house. “Not so fast, young lady.” Elizabeth’s shoulders slumped. “I want to meet your young man.” 

Her young man. Yeah, he was never letting her live that one down. 

“Bobby Brown, it’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Nichols.” He held his hand out to her, stepping past Elizabeth. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you too. I’ve heard so much about you.” Bobby turned back to look at Elizabeth, whose face was slowly turning red. 

“Okay, Mom, you’ve met him. Can we go now?” She grabbed on to Bobby’s arm and began pulling him away.

“Fine. But your father will want to meet him too.”

“Next time, mom. Bye!” She pulled him even faster now, and he let himself be pulled. Dads were no laughing matter. 

“Be home by 10!” Her mom called. 

“11 o’clock, got it, mom! Bye!” 

Bobby looked back at her mom and called out a promise to have her home by ten, but she just laughed and waved them off. 

Elizabeth huffed a sigh as she slammed the passenger door shut. He turned to her, a smirk on his face. “Your young man?” 

“Shut up,” she huffed. 

He laughed and turned the key over. As they were pulling away he asked, “So what have you been telling your mom about me?” 

He was lucky he thought to lock the doors ahead of time.

\--

“Do you remember how easily I kicked your ass in basketball?” Elizabeth asked haughtily as they walked to the first hole in mini-golf. 

“Um, I remember you barely winning by one cheap shot, if that’s what you’re referring to.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “Please, you didn’t have a chance in hell of winning that game. Just like you don’t have a chance in hell of beating me now.”

He laughed. “Whatever you say, Nichols.”

It quickly became clear that Elizabeth's threat was an empty one, because she had no idea how to play mini-golf. The basics she got, hit the ball with the stick toward the hole, but actually getting the ball in the hole? Forget about it. 

“Do they not have mini-golf in Canada?” He taunted as she missed the ball entirely on a swing at the third hole. 

She huffed and turned around, one hand on her hip. “Okay, first of all, I’m not from Canada. Don't even joke about that. Secondly, something is wrong with this putter.” She swung it around for emphasis and he ducked. 

“Hey, watch it. You’re gonna take an eye out if you’re not careful. Here, let me show you how it’s done.”

She raised an eyebrow but stepped out of the way. 

He sighed. “No, come here.” His hand shot out and caught her arm, pulling her back up to her spot before she could pull away. 

“What are you doing?” She asked, and the alarm in her voice made him laugh. 

“I’m showing you how to play mini-golf properly, now stand here,” he put his hands on her hips to adjust her stance. She huffed, but let herself be manhandled into the proper position. He stepped up to her and put his arms around her from behind to adjust her hands and the putter.

“Ah, I get it. This was all some scheme to get all pressed up on me.” 

He rolled his eyes. “I am trying to help you. If you’d like to embarrass yourself and lose 1000-9 you’re more than welcome to.”

“Okay, Tom Watson, help away.”

“Thank you. Now,” he put his hands on her hips to adjust her stance and tried not to think about how nice they looked there. “You want to angle your hips so that they’re in line with where you want the ball to go. Got that?”

“Yeah, yep.” Bobby thought maybe her voice sounded strained, but he ignored it and stepped closer, sliding his arms around to cover her hands on the putter. He swore he heard her breath hitch. 

“You wanna hold your hands like this, dominant hand on top.” His voice had dropped a little, subconsciously responding to the closeness of her body. “No not like– there you go. And then you’ll just swing back– not that far– there. And swing through.” 

He swung her arms gently and together they tapped the ball. It tumbled along the turf and went straight into the hole. “Just like that,” he said softly, not moving. When he breathed he could smell her shampoo. 

Elizabeth turned to look at him, humor gone from her eyes. “Thanks,” she said softly.

“No problem,” he said, and his eyes dropped to her lips. She was wearing some kind of lipgloss, the sheen still present even after their dinner. He leaned in, thinking about the salt he’d seen at the corner of her mouth while they were eating, how she’d wiped it with her thumb and then _licked it off_ her thumb. 

He could see her leaning back, head tilting and eyes closing. Their lips had almost touched when–

“Hey lovebirds! Are you gonna play on or what?”

He turned to see some meathead guffawing with his friends. _Pathetic_. The dude opened his mouth, clearly ready to continue, when his eyes dropped to his Cobra Kai jacket, and Bobby saw it click. _Yeah, dickead_ , he thought. _Try it._

“Hey man, sorry. Take all the time you want.” And Bobby heard his friends call him a pussy, and his vague defense of “did you guys see his jacket? He does _karate_.” And he felt a little gratified, even if he was annoyed at the dude for ruining their moment. 

He turned back to Elizabeth, who was watching him with an amused half-smile on her face. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Just good to know I’m not the only one with a temper.”

\--

Once they’d finished their golf and played best two out of three at basketball, they headed outside where the temperature had dropped off considerably. Bobby shivered and wrapped his jacket tighter around himself. Then he felt terrible. If he was cold, surely Elizabeth, who hadn’t brought a jacket and was wearing a loose cropped t-shirt, was freezing. 

He took off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. “Here.”

“Um, thanks?” she said, but it came out more like a question. A breeze blew over his face and Bobby suppressed a shiver. “Are you sure you don’t want this?” She held the jacket back out. 

He crossed his arms, holding them close to himself for warmth. “No, I’m good. Aren’t you cold?” 

She gave him a weird look. “It’s like 60 degrees.” 

“Right. That’s _cold_.”

She laughed at this, a full-body thing that threw her head back and exposed the line of her throat. “60 degrees is not cold. 60 degrees is a spring day in Augusta. A _warm_ spring day. Here,” and she draped the jacket over his shoulders, tucking it around him. His face felt warm and he thought if she smiled at him like all the time that he would never need his jacket again. 

“Clearly you need this more than I do. My delicate little California flower.” She put a hand on his chin and shook his head the way a grandma might. 

He jerked his head back. “Whatever,” he huffed, feeling a little embarrassed. He walked a little faster toward the car. 

“No, wait,” Elizabeth called, but there was still a little laugh in her voice. She caught up with him and grabbed his arm, turning him back to her. “No, I’m sorry. It was very sweet of you.”

He ducked his head, embarrassed that he’d overestimated the cold and that he had reacted like that. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said, and she slid her hands up his jacket and pulled him into a kiss. 

His hands went immediately to her hips, holding her close as he tasted her lip gloss. Even though it was clear, it tasted of strawberry, and there was still a little salt from her pretzel. She let out a soft noise that made him feel weak at the knees and tilted her head, deepening the kiss. 

As much as he wanted to keep going, he wasn't sure he’d be able to stop if it got any deeper, so he pulled back just slightly. Elizabeth chased his lips, and he grins but squeezed her hip to get her attention. 

“As fun as this is, I should probably get you home. Your mom seemed pretty serious about that curfew,” he said softly. A lie, her mom had seemed unconcerned, but still. 

She was looking more at his lips than his eyes when she spoke, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Then she looked up at him, smiling even though her eyes were dark. “Don’t wanna piss off the warden.”

Bobby laughed. “You call your mother ‘the warden’?”

Elizabeth’s grin was cheeky. “Not to her face.”

\--

When they reached the front door, Elizabeth played with her keys, looking reluctant to go. “Okay, well–”

Bobby caught her hand in both of his, looking at it rather than her so he could have the courage to say the next few words. “Look, I had a really fun time tonight.” He looked up to see her eyes wide. “Could I take you out again sometime?”

Before he knew what was happening, she lurched forward to kiss him again, hand on his cheek. He eagerly returned it for a few seconds. Once she pulled back, it took a moment for his eyes to focus. “I’ll take that as a yes?”

She grinned and kissed him again, arms coming up to wrap around his neck. He slid his hands around to the small of her back and pulled her closer. 

Bobby didn’t hear the door opening, but he definitely heard the “ahem,” her father let out as he cleared his throat. 

They sprung apart, Elizabeth’s face was flushed and her lips were red. Her father’s face was also flushed, but he guessed it wasn’t a happy flush. 

“Dad! Hi! I was just coming inside,” she said, hand still on his shoulder, unconcerned about the position he'd just caught them in. 

“Clearly,” he said drily. Bobby wanted to die. “You must be Bobby.”

“Yes.” His voice came out squeaky and Bobby cleared his throat and held out a hand. “Yes, sir. It’s nice to meet you, sir. Your daughter speaks very highly of you.” He winced and Elizabeth elbowed him in the side. 

Her dad took the hand, and Bobby had to use all of his Cobra Kai training not to cry out at the feeling of the bones in his hand being crushed. 

There was a note of amusement in her father's voice when he spoke. “I’m sure she does. Thank you for getting her home on time. It’s probably time for you to go now.”

“Dad!” Elizabeth protested, but Bobby was grateful for the out. 

“Of course, sir. Goodbye, sir.” he carefully extracted his hand from the iron grip of her father and turned to go. 

“Bye,” Elizabeth said, catching his arm to turn him back to her. She looked a little annoyed, though Bobby wasn’t sure who at. 

He smiled. “Bye.”

“Call me?” She asked, and it so wasn’t fair, asking this in front of her dad. She knew it too, this teasing look in her eyes. She was gonna be the death of him.

“Of course.” Mr. Nichols cleared his throat menacingly. 

“Uh, but I should go. Bye,” he said again, and looked over her shoulder to talk to her dad. “Bye, sir. It was great meeting you.” And then he got the hell out of there. 

He looked up at the house as he was getting his keys out, fumbling them when he saw the two of them still watching his retreat.


	11. Truce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: some graphic descriptions of blood and pain in this chapter. Also drug use and some talk about dead frogs. And also some mentions of throwing up, though short and not very graphic

A couple of months after her first date with Bobby, one week before Halloween, it occurred to Elizabeth that she was actually starting to _like_ living in L.A. The traffic still sucked and she couldn’t quite get over how warm it was, but luckily October had brought with it blessedly cooler temperatures. 

Still, things were good. She had a steady boyfriend, good friends, and a place to practice karate. Despite her initial reservations about the ‘way of the fist’, she found she fit in well and advanced quickly. The other guys learned quickly that, even though she was a girl, going easy on her was not an option. 

At her second-ever practice with the team, Kreese had paired her and Dutch up for sparring. He sent her a wink behind Kreese’s back and promised to “take it easy,” and she had him laid out on his back in seconds. 

She’d glanced up at Kreese, who raised an eyebrow, asked, “What are you waiting for? Finish him.” Elizabeth nodded once and struck Dutch hard in the solar plexus. Even though he didn’t, she could tell he wanted to curl in on himself. He never took it easy after that. 

Once she managed to convince the guys she didn’t have hollow bones (seriously, what the _fuck_?), they stopped being overly gentle with her. She was surprised to find that they all seemed to genuinely enjoy having her around. 

Well, _almost_ all of them seemed to like her. Johnny was still a major pain in her ass. He was constantly pushing her buttons: making snide comments, leaving her out of plans, and picking fights. She couldn’t complain too much she knew; Elizabeth gave as good as she got, but still, after 2 months, she was about ready to snap and do something really stupid.

She finally got the chance one day, Friday, October 28. It was sixth-period Biology with Mr. Caldwell, a class she shared with the other Cobras, and it was time to dissect frogs. 

Elizabeth hated dissecting. She hated the smell of the formaldehyde, the feel of the gloves on her hands, and most of all, the eggs. She and her lab partner, Charlotte Smith (a girl who, while being very sweet, was also very ditsy, and scared of the frog, which meant Elizabeth was stuck doing all the work herself while Charlotte took notes in her swoopy handwriting), had gotten stuck with a pregnant female frog, and the sheer amount of eggs she had to dig through to even see the organs had her fighting to keep her lunch down. Johnny and Dutch, who were sitting behind her (the lucky assholes had been paired together), suffered a similar fate. Elizabeth could hear them groaning and complaining as she carefully scooped eggs out of the frog with her scalpel and scraped them onto the tray. 

The complaining stopped and they started to snicker, which Elizabeth ignored– assuming they had gotten to the frog's vagina or something (did frogs even have vaginas?). She kept on ignoring them until she turned to Charlotte to note the color of the lungs and felt a wet _thwack_ on the side of her head. 

Slowly, a little freaked out by the horrified look on Charlotte’s face and the way the entire classroom had gone silent, she reached up to touch the side of her head, and came away with a glob of frog eggs on her gloves. 

Elizabeth turned, calmly, to look at Johnny and Dutch. Johnny had an awful, smug, shit-eating grin on his face and Dutch had a fist to his mouth, crying with laughter. She looked down at the scalpel in Johnny’s hand, and back up to his face. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bobby start to get up, and she could hear his voice in her mind telling her to breathe. Then Johnny raised an eyebrow at her, still smirking. 

Before she knew what she was doing, Elizabeth leapt over their table, knocking the frog and all their tools to the ground, and hooked Johnny across the face. He fell back into the table behind him, knocking their supplies around as well. He turned red and surged forward, shoving her, and soon they were on the ground, grappling. 

Elizabeth had just gotten on top and was raising her hand to hit him when she got hauled off by Bobby. As soon as she was off, Johnny jumped up, but before he could come after her, Dutch grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him away.

Elizabeth broke free from Bobby, but Tommy came up and together they dragged her back, out into the hallway. (She would never admit this, but she was inordinately proud that it took both Bobby and Tommy to keep her contained). Outside, they held her up against a locker while she breathed heavily. 

“You gonna calm down?” Bobby asked, tone not quite angry, but close. Disappointed, definitely. She breathed a couple seconds more before nodding. 

Just as they let her go, Mr. Caldwell emerged into the hallway, face beet red with an iron grip on Johnny’s arm. He looked at her, and though Bobby might not have been angry, he definitely was. 

“Principal’s office. Now.” 

She nodded again and walked two steps behind him the whole way there, not daring to look at Johnny, who still hung awkwardly from his grip. 

\-- 

Principal Bulwee was not a pleasant man. Standing at just around 5’4” with small eyes that were too close together and a too big stomach that hung over his belt, it was difficult to believe he’d fought in the same war as Kreese, but his temperament proved it. 

Elizabeth had, unfortunately, spent quite a bit of time in his office. The feud between her and Johnny had spilled over into school hours several times. While Mr. Caldwell furiously recounted their fight, she fixated on the medal hanging above Bulwee’s head. 

Bulwee listened to the entire story without once looking at their biology teacher, choosing instead to stare down Johnny and Elizabeth. From the corner of her eye she could see Johnny maintaining eye contact. Of course he was. Smug asshat.

When he finished, Bulwee nodded at Mr. Caldwell and asked him to wait outside while he “dealt with these two.”

Caldwell looked like he wanted to protest, but he walked out of the room anyway. 

“So,” Bulwee said. “You made quite the mess of the biology lab.”

“She attacked me,” Johnny said sullenly. 

“Only after he threw frog eggs at me!” She protested. 

“So you just had to attack me?” 

“Oh, that is rich coming from you–”

Bulwee slammed a hand down on his desk and they both jumped. “Enough! The two of you have caused a series of disturbances since the school year started. In fact, we can’t seem to keep you away from each other.” He pulled out a folder, flipped it open, and began reading. “There was the incident on the soccer field during gym class, your shouting match in Mr. Harris’ history class, a rather disturbing instance in the cafeteria that made the lunch staff seriously consider removing mashed potatoes from the menu… I could go on, but I think that would be a waste of all our time wouldn’t you agree?”

The two of them mumbled a “yes sir,” under their breath. 

“What was that?”

“Yes, sir.” They said louder. 

“Good. I’m going to assess the damage with Mr. Caldwell so we can determine what the proper punishment will be for you two. I trust you can sit here quietly for five minutes alone, or do I need to call my secretary in to babysit you?”

They both shook their heads. “We’ll be fine.” 

“Fine.”

They sat in sullen silence for a while, until Elizabeth snapped and leaned over to hiss “This is your fault.” 

“My fault? How is it my fault?” His voice squeaked a little on his indignance. 

“You. Threw. Frog. Guts. At. My. Face.” She indicated her hair, which still reeked.

“You had every chance to react rationally Ickles, not my fault you’re always jumping for a fight.” 

“Oh, that’s rich coming from you.” She retorted. “How’s your hand doing? All recovered from your In N Out fight?” 

“How’s that lifetime ban from the drive-in going? Gonna go back to kick the manager’s ass next?” 

“That’s it,” she jumped up, not caring that she was in the principal’s office and would probably get expelled, and was ready to strike when the door burst open. 

“ _Alright_ you two,” Johnny and Elizabeth jumped back, returning to their sulking positions in their seats. Bulwee stared at them over the top of the manila folder he was carrying, their feigned disinterest had clearly not fooled him. “Because the two of you are intent on making a mess wherever you go, rather than let you waste time sitting around in detention, Mr. Caldwell and I have decided to tailor the punishment to the crime. You both will stay after school to assist Mr. Caldwell in cleaning the biology lab. Then, you will show up early tomorrow to set up for the Halloween dance and stay late to clean everything up. You will not leave until that gym is spotless. Do you understand?”

“Come on-” She said right as Johnny exclaimed,“That’s totally not fair!” 

“I don’t want to hear it!” Mr. Bulwee slammed his hand down on his desk. “I said, ‘do you understand,’ That is a yes or no question.” 

“Yes sir,” they both mumbled. 

“Good. You’ll report to the biology lab immediately following seventh period. Now get out of my office.”

The two of them stood up and walked out side by side. On their way out, Bulwee’s secretary stopped them and handed them notes to excuse their tardiness to their respective classes. 

Without sparing Johnny a second look, Elizabeth stormed off to her locker and then to the library for study hall. 

\--

Immediately following seventh period, exactly as Bulwee said, Elizabeth headed for the biology lab. Well, she went to her locker first, and _then_ she went to the bio lab. She found herself wishing she had just taken her books with her when she saw who was waiting. 

“You fought Johnny? Seriously? In _class_?” Ali’s look of disapproval cut Elizabeth to her core. 

“He started it.” She wondered how many times she would have to say that before people started caring. 

“Whatever happened to rising above huh? I thought you were better than that.” Something in Ali’s tone set Elizabeth off, and she slammed her locker shut.

“I can’t believe you’re lecturing _me_ and not that immature asshole.”

“Hey–”

“I mean, why are you even with him? He acts like a three-year-old and he’s always getting in fights with a _girl_. Don’t you think you can do a little better? Or is he just that big?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted them, but Ali didn’t look hurt. Instead, her face hardened. 

“If you want to act like a child and fight with Johnny, that’s your business. What goes on between me and Johnny is mine.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Ali, I’m so–”

Ali cut her off. “You should probably head to detention now. You wouldn’t wanna be late.” And then she walked away, blonde curls swaying. 

Great. Now all she had to do was get in a fight with Bobby and she’d have the whole fuckin’ set. She sighed and headed to the lab.

\--

After two disgusting hours of cleaning instruments, scrubbing pans, and jarring frogs, Elizabeth walked out of the lab sweaty and annoyed. She stunk like formaldehyde and wanted nothing more than to stalk home and shower until she smelled normal again. 

Unfortunately for her, when Elizabeth got home her mother was waiting, furious.

As soon as Elizabeth opened the door, her mother called out to her from the living room. “Elizabeth Roberta Nichols! Get in here right now!” 

She sighed. “Mom? Can this wait? I really want to take a shower.”

“You got in _another_ fight?” Apparently, it couldn't wait. She walked into the living room to find her mother perched on one of the couches, arms crossed. As her mother yelled, she stood up and began to move about the room. “I got a call from your principal, Mr. Bulwee, who– by the way– is a member of the club and very important to your future, and he told me that not only did you get into a wrestling match with the stepson of your father’s boss, but you also destroyed the school’s biology lab? What were you thinking?”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to explain, but her mother cut her off.

“You’ve embarrassed yourself, you’ve embarrassed me, you’ve embarrassed your father– how do you think he’ll look at work when his daughter is running amok starting fights and destroying school property?”

Elizabeth felt that familiar flash of anger rise up in her. Of course, all she cared about was how they were perceived. As if anyone at her dad’s job would even know there _was_ a fight. “Did he tell you that Johnny threw frog eggs at me? Huh? Did he mention that HE has started every fight we’ve been in since you dragged me to this stupid city? He’s been following me around and _tormenting_ me ever since we moved here but you don’t care about any of that! All you care about is how we’re _perceived_. He could push me off a cliff and you would get mad at me if one of my nails grazed him on the way down.” She turned headed for the stairs, not caring if her mother was done. 

“Don’t you walk away from me young lady!” Her mom caught her by the arm and spun her around to face her. For such a short woman, she really could get up in your face. “You will not speak to me that way, ever! Do you understand me? I am still your mother. Now I’m sorry you’ve had it rough here, this move hasn’t been easy on any of us–”

Elizabeth scoffed at that. 

“But that does not give you the right to go around starting–or finishing!” she corrected before Elizabeth could speak. “Fights. You’re grounded. Two weeks. I took your phone from your room. You will go to school and come straight home. You will not see Bobby or Ali or any of the rest of your friends.”

Elizabeth pulled back her arm and fought back tears. “What about karate?”

Her mom sighed. “Since we’re already paying for it, you might as well go. But straight there, straight home. And you will not be participating at the dance tomorrow.”

“I have to go to the dance. Bulwee is making us set up and tear down.”

“I know. You will go to set up, and then you AND Johnny will have a classroom to sit in during the dance, and then you will tear down and come straight home. No dancing. No costumes. Your principal and I decided that was fair, don’t you think?”

No, she didn’t. In fact, Elizabeth couldn’t believe how unfair it all was. 

“I can’t believe you didn’t even wait to hear my side of this before you threw me into a room for hours with that– that asshole!” She yelled. “You won’t even let me sit in my room with the door _open_ to hang out with Bobby, but you’ll let them lock me in a room alone with _him_? What if he tries to attack me? Huh?”

Her mom smiled then, not even phased by Elizabeth’s anger or her swearing. “Well, that’s what all your karate training is for, isn’t it?”

Elizabeth staggered back a step, feeling as if her mother had slapped her across the face. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly why the comment hurt so much. She stomped up the stairs to her room. Before she closed the door she turned to yell out into the house. “I hate this stupid fucking city!” 

The door slammed so hard a picture fell off one of her bookcases. Tears rose in her eyes when she scooped down to pick it up and realized what the picture was. It was a picture of her first tournament. She had earned her brown belt two weeks earlier and had to beg her sensei to let her compete. In the picture, she was holding up her second-place trophy and beaming, held in the air by her team, with her sensei grasping her free hand.

The pure happiness in her eyes made her feel even worse. She missed home. She missed her old dojo, with the guys who all supported her and a sensei that didn’t set her teeth on edge. She missed feeling like she understood her place in the world. 

With trembling hands, she began cleaning up the glass, which was becoming difficult to see through her tears gathering in her eyes. A shard began to fall out of her hand, and before she could stop herself, Elizabeth tightened her grip. 

Pain blossomed in her hand, and she cried out as she dropped the bloody glass. With her hand pressed to her chest, she stumbled into the bathroom and thrust her hand under the sink. The sight of the blood, bright red against her pale hand, combined with the stink of her earlier work made her feel sick. She pressed her lips firmly together to fight the bile rising in her throat. 

“Goddammit,” she said with a sob as the water hit her cut and the pain renewed. For how much it had bled, it didn’t look all that deep. She wadded up some toilet paper to staunch the flow while she fumbled under the sink for the first aid kit, movements made slow and clumsy by her frustration. 

Opening up the kit, she pulled out a package of gauze and some medical tape. There probably was a bandaid that could cover the cut, but she didn’t feel like trying to open the box with one hand. She didn’t even bother to rinse the cut again after she pulled off the bloody toilet paper. She just pressed the gauze to her hand and wrapped the tape tightly around several times before ripping it off with her teeth. 

Feeling wrung out, she leaned over to the shower and turned the spray on as hot as it would go before leaning back to strip off her clothes. She stared at her shirt after she got it off, the nice pink blouse that Ali had talked her into buying now stained with her blood. Her movements were slow and jerky, she felt as though she might melt to the floor and sob if she so much as tripped while stepping out of her jeans.

When she was finally undressed and in the shower, Elizabeth couldn’t find the energy to clean herself. Instead, she hunched down in the spray, resting her chin on her knees and letting the water wash over her. 

As the water started to cool off, she stood up and began to clean, careful of her bandaged hand. Still, by the time she was done, the bandage was soaked through and needed to be changed. 

Elizabeth wrapped a towel firmly around herself and cleaned her hand properly this time, hissing at the sting of the alcohol wipes. She managed to pry open the bandaid box and did find a band-aid good for covering her hand. Without bothering to dry her hair, she wandered into her room and laid on her bed, wanting a moment to rest before she got dressed and had to face her parents at dinner. 

Elizabeth didn’t mean to fall asleep, but when she opened her eyes the room was dark and her hair had gone from dripping to damp. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she stood up and abandoned her towel to wander over to her closet. Pulling clothes at random from hangers, Elizabeth dressed comfortably before wandering downstairs, too hungry to care if there was another fight waiting for her.

It turned out she didn’t need to worry about a fight, according to the clock on the oven, it was two in the morning, and her parents had probably gone to bed hours earlier. Her mom had taped a note to the fridge. 

“Honey– There’s a plate for you in the fridge. You seemed pretty tired earlier, so I thought I should let you sleep. I’m sorry for yelling. –Mom.”

She scoffed, “yeah, I’m sure you’re real sorry Mom,” but she pulled the plate out of the fridge anyway. 

She considered not eating it as a form of protest, but it was lobster mac and cheese, Maine comfort food, and she couldn't resist. Her stomach growled as she nuked it and realized she hadn’t eaten since lunch. 

After she ate, Elizabeth briefly considered calling Ali before she remembered that a) it was two am, b) she didn’t have a phone in her room, risking a call in the kitchen didn’t seem worth it, and c) Ali was pissed at her. Instead, she wandered back upstairs and grabbed her walkman and Fleetwood Mac before falling back into bed. 

Once she got comfortable opposite the wet pillow from earlier, she stared up at the ceiling and let the smooth voice of Stevie Nicks lull her to sleep. 

\--

By 7 pm, the school was nicely decorated and hopping with students, all excited to show off their Halloween costumes and dance. 

Johnny and Elizabeth, by contrast, were being led to a classroom down the hall by Mrs. Drake. She placed a single walkie-talkie on the teacher's desk at the front of the room, one of many the chaperones all had, she explained, and told them to use it should there be an emergency. 

“What qualifies as an emergency?” Johnny asked, trying to cover the snark with some sweetness. 

Mrs. Drake heard the snark and leveled him a hard look, one she typically reserved for spine crackers and those who chewed gum too close to open textbooks. “If the pool of blood is too big to be cleaned up with paper towels.” Then she shut the door. 

Elizabeth stared resolutely at the chalkboard, determined to ignore Johnny for the next three hours. Out of her peripheral, she could see Johnny staring at the door. 

After a moment he wondered aloud, “What if I have to pee?”

Her mouth twitched, but then she scowled. In her head, she began working through the problems on the board. The room had apparently been used for geometry, Pythagoras’ theorem was scrawled above several drawings of triangles. 

She heard Johnny shift beside her. “Seriously, we’re gonna be in here for three hours. What if I have to pee?”

She assumed he was talking to her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried calculations on her head. Squaring things was fine, but square roots weren’t really a thing you could do without a calculator. Elizabeth started squaring numbers she hoped would get her close instead. 

“Hey.”

Ten times ten, one hundred. Way too high. Seven times seven, forty-nine. Too low. 

“Hey. Ickles.”

Eight times eight. Sixty-four. Nine times nine. Eighty-one. Somewhere between eight and nine then. 

She was just about to move onto the next triangle when Johnny plopped into the chair in front of her. 

“ _Hey_. What are you doing?”

Elizabeth ignored him and leaned to the side so she could see the board. He leaned with her. She sighed and leaned the other way. He leaned with her again. Puzzled blue eyes and downturned mouth. She scowled at him and stood up, moving to a new desk. 

He followed her and sat in front of her again. This time he leaned toward her and waved a hand in front of her face. 

“Are you seriously going to ignore me the entire time we’re in here?”

She leaned her head back to avoid his arm, then got up again. This time, she chose a desk at the front of the classroom. 

He moved and just stood in front of her so that her eyes were level with his stomach. She leaned to the side again. 

This time, instead of moving with her, he turned around. If there wasn’t a desk between them, his butt would be directly in her face. 

Elizabeth turned to study a poster on the wall. 

“You’re doing _math_?” He sounded so shocked she almost laughed. 

Elizabeth did not understand teachers’ love of motivational posters. As if a cat saying “hang in there” would inspire a student about to flunk the test on calculating volume. 

Johnny wandered over to the teacher's desk and perched on it, picking up the walkie talkie. “You would seriously rather do math in your head than talk to me?” 

His tone surprised Elizabeth. He almost sounded… sad. When she looked at him, he was fiddling with the volume button and his eyebrows were furrowed. He looked as dejected as he sounded. 

“You _want_ to talk to me?” The first words she’d said to him since their argument in Bulwee’s office the day before. 

He looked up, surprised. “Well, yeah. I mean, I know we don’t always get along, but I thought we were kind of, like, friends.”

She studied his face. Was this a joke?

“We get in fights like, every other week.”

Johnny shrugged, defensive. “I fight Dutch all the time.”

“You threw frog eggs at me!”

He threw his hands up. “It was Dutch’s idea! I didn’t know you were gonna get all mad about it.”

He really was unbelievable. 

“I thought you would think it was funny.”

Her jaw dropped, and she snapped it closed. “You are unbelievable.”

“What?” He asked, tone defensive.

“In what world would I, or any other girl, think that is even like, remotely funny?”

“Well, you’re not exactly like other girls.” She was sure that was meant to be an insult. 

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” 

“I don’t know! You like karate.” He said, like that explained anything. 

“So because I like karate, you think my idea of a funny joke is someone throwing rotting frog guts at my head.” 

He gave her a look, like she was being stupid. “No, that’s not what I meant I just thought, I mean–” he dropped his face into his hands. She could see the tips of his ears turning pink. Was he, embarrassed?

After a moment, he looked up. “You’re like, one of the guys.” He said softly. 

She ran her tongue along her teeth, considering. This seemed like an olive branch, maybe their way of moving past all this. It would be so easy, natural even, to push Johnny’s buttons somehow and bring back some of the old tension. But looking into his face, she found she didn’t want to. 

Ali’s words came back to her, “You two aren’t so different.”

Maybe they _could_ be friends, but they definitely weren’t already.

“If you thought we were friends, then why’d you start ignoring Bobby when he and I started dating?” 

“I didn’t start ignoring him.” 

“Uh, yeah, you did. Even Ali noticed.” Elizabeth spent a lot of hours with Bobby, trying to console him over Johnny’s sudden cold shoulder. 

“I did not.” His face was turning red again. “He was the one who didn’t have any time for me.”

“Bullshit. He’s your _best friend_. He could never not have time for you.”

“I guess.”

“He deserves to be happy too, you know?” 

Johnny shot her a look at that. “I know that. Of course, I do. I guess I was just–” he trailed off, staring off to the side. 

“Just what?” She followed his line of sight to the window in the door. There were faces in it. “What is that?”

They both got up and moved closer. It was Tommy and Dutch. 

“Seriously?” Elizabeth laughed. 

Dutch’s head disappeared as Tommy waved excitedly at them. They both waved back, dumbfounded. 

Dutch reappeared, and waved too, this time pointing down to the floor. Johnny looked down and laughed. “No way.” 

Elizabeth looked too. There was a small plastic baggie with a single rolled joint, a matchbook, and a note. 

Johnny picked them all up and read aloud. “Ali told us you were stuck in here. Lame. Brought you some of the good shit, from Jimmy’s cousin. Enjoy.” He looked back up at the door. Dutch and Tommy were practically bouncing out of their costumes. Johnny nodded to them. “Thanks, guys.” 

They nodded and waved again at Elizabeth. She waved back, shaking her head in disbelief. “Morons. They’re gonna get caught, walking around the school like that.” She walked over to the walkie and picked it up, turning the volume as loud as it would go. 

Sure enough, not even a minute later, “Two boys were found trying to sneak into the gym. They claim they had to use the restroom?” 

It crackled. “Whatever. Just let them back in and make sure they don’t leave again.” 

Johnny huffed a laugh, still grinning. He opened the bag up and sniffed it. His eyes rolled back into his head. “Oh yeah. This is good shit.” 

He held the bag out to her. Elizabeth had no idea what ‘good’ weed smelled like, but she sniffed it anyway. “Smells great,” she said, and she managed to only sound a little sarcastic. 

“What, you’ve never lit up before?” Johnny asked her, a sly smile creeping across his face. 

She shook her head. Drinking, she’d done. Smoking? Never. Her parents would murder her. 

Johnny laughed. “Well, there’s a first time for everything. Do you think this window opens?”

“No way. You are not smoking that thing in here.” 

Johnny didn’t respond, frowning as he ran his hands along the seam of the window. “Surely this opens,” he murmured to himself. “It’s gotta be some kind of fire hazard if it doesn’t.” 

“Johnny, are you listening to me? We can’t smoke that in here, we’ll get expelled.”

He looked at her. “What? Now you’re afraid of getting in trouble?”

She huffed. “There’s a difference between a slap fight in the cafeteria and doing illegal drugs on campus.”

“Oh please,” he said, back on the window. “It’s _weed_. It’s not like, heroin. Aha!” The window opened. 

“Johnny, it will reek in here if we smoke. Mrs. Drake will know. My parents will know. And then they will kill me.” 

“Well duh. We’re not gonna smoke in here, dumbass. We’re gonna smoke it out there.” He gestured toward the window. 

“That is the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.”

“How is that dumb? Name one flaw in this plan.”

“Okay. What if Mrs. Drake comes back to check on us? What if a teacher is walking around outside and catches us? What if the window shuts while we’re out? What if we lose track of time and then we’re not here when she comes back for us?”

Johnny stared at her for a moment. “You worry too much.”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not going.” 

“She won’t come by to check on us. She hates us. All the teachers are concentrating on the punch bowl and the bathrooms, so no one is walking around. The window won’t shut. And we still have,” he looked at the clock. “Two hours. It won’t take us two hours to smoke one joint.”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “How do you know the window won’t close?”

He laughed. “I know. Come on, don’t be a square.” 

Elizabeth wanted to go. She’d always wanted to try weed. And it certainly beat sitting in here bored stiff for another two hours. Still, “What about the smell?”

“We opened the window to get some fresh air and a skunk came by and sprayed. Very unfortunate. Very gross. Very believable.”

She tilted her head to one side, considering. 

Johnny tossed a head back and groaned. “Come ooooon. I’m going either way, but it’s no fun smoking alone.”

Elizabeth tilted her head to the other side and then nodded. “Fine. But if we get caught, you’re taking the fall.”

Johnny celebrated. “Absolutely I am. Let’s go.”

He cupped his hands together to boost her out the window and then handed her the stuff. 

“Don’t drop it.”

A look. “I won’t drop it.”

“I’m just saying.” Johnny grabbed the ledge and smoothly pulled himself out. He held out a hand, and she dropped the supplies into it. 

“Let’s go.”

They wandered a little further and sat under a tree about a hundred yards from their window. Elizabeth found herself looking back at it, checking to see if it was still open. 

“It’s not gonna close.”

She turned back to Johnny, who had lit the joint and was taking the first hit. 

“I know. Just, looking.”

He smirked and then puffed out the smoke in his lungs. The joint extended to her. Elizabeth took it, then looked at Johnny. 

“Between your lips, like a cigarette.” She didn’t bother to tell him she’d never smoked one of those either. “Take a deep breath, and then hold it as long as you can.” 

Elizabeth shrugged and took a deep breath. Immediately, an acrid smell hit the back of her throat and she coughed. 

Johnny laughed and she tried not to feel embarrassed. “The goal is to keep it in for a few more seconds.”

She glared at him and raised the joint to her lips again, determined. If he could do it, so could she. Another deep breath. It still burned, but she screwed up her face, determined to hold on to it. Elizabeth managed a couple seconds more before she gave up and coughed again.

“Here. Gimme that, before you waste all of it.” Johnny took another hit, relaxing back into the tree. 

She could slightly feel the buzz, but she knew she needed to hold onto it longer the next time. Her hand reached out for the joint. Johnny moved it away. 

“Uh-uh. You’re gonna waste it again.” 

She was annoyed. “You drag me all the way out here, and now you won’t even let me have any? How is that fair?”

Johnny seemed to consider this. He took another hit, and blew out the smoke, staring at her. 

“Okay,” he said finally. “I’m gonna try something. You ever heard of shotgunning?”

What was that? “No.”

“Come here.” She shifted forward. “No closer.” A suspicious look. “I’m not gonna hit you. Just come here.” 

Elizabeth sighed and scooted forward until their knees were touching. 

“Good. Now I’m gonna take a hit, and then hand the joint to you. Then I’m gonna grab your face– just, trust me, and I’m gonna think about how much I love my girlfriend.”

“What?” But he had already started. He took a deep hit, cheeks hollowing out and jawline faintly visible in the glowing end of the joint, then he handed it to her. She took it without thinking. 

His hands came up and framed her face. When she tried to jerk away, they tightened, and he gave her a look. Then he leaned in like he was going to kiss her. 

“Woah, Lawrence. Slow down.” She tried to pull away again and he looked at her hard. She stilled, swallowing. His thumb traced along her bottom lip and pulled it down. Her lips parted, and he leaned in. His face just barely touched hers and his mouth opened. She sucked in a breath at the contact, taking with her the smoke in his throat. 

This hit felt much milder, and she held onto it while Johnny leaned back. She watched him, eyes wide, not breathing. 

“You can let it go, Ickles.” 

She breathed out, the smoke curling up and away from her mouth. “What the fuck?” She asked, but she could feel the weed kicking in, and her posture relaxed. 

“That was shotgunning,” Johnny said simply. He didn’t seem the least bit affected by it, which irritated her for some reason. 

“But, you have a girlfriend. I have a boyfriend. I’m dating your best friend Johnny!” Her voice was pitched up and she winced at how shrill it sounded. 

“Chill out. It wasn’t a kiss, just a way to help beginners smoke. Here, you’re probably ready to take a real hit now.” He held out the dwindling joint. 

Elizabeth pushed herself back from him before taking it. The hit really did go better this time. She turned to the side to let the smoke out, and to get a break from Johnny’s stare. He reached out for the joint, but she took another hit before passing it back to be petulant. He’d gotten more of it anyway. 

She started feeling foggy, loosening up and forgot about the weird not-kiss. Johnny was much more tolerable like this, loose and funny. Sharp edges softening. 

“What were you gonna say earlier, before we got interrupted?”

Johnny lifted his head with some difficulty. “What?”

“When we were talking about Bobby.” His forehead creased. “You were about to say something,” she insisted. 

He leaned back and thought hard. 

“I said, he deserves to be happy, and you said, I know, it’s just… and then we got interrupted.” Elizabeth prompted. 

Johnny nodded. “You’re like, so much like me it scares me sometimes.” He said finally. 

She decided to stay silent. 

“You like karate, cars, music– Bobby told me about your collection– and you fit in so well with the guys and everything, it just feels like you’re gonna–” he broke off in a sigh. 

“You know what Ali said to me, that night at Jimmy’s?” 

It took Elizabeth’s smoke-addled brain a moment to place the night he meant. “What?”

“That, if it weren’t for me, she probably never would have met you. And, if it weren’t for you, she probably would have dumped me then.” She can see his jaw working, the same way hers does when she doesn’t want to cry. 

“She said, looking at you, she can understand all the parts of me she didn’t before.”

Elizabeth took a moment to process this. Were they really that similar? That you can learn about one by observing the other?

“I guess I’m scared you’re trying to take my place.”

She sat on that for a while but didn't know what to say. 

Finally, “I’m not trying to take your place jackass.” Not a philosophical stoner, then. 

He laughed. 

“Plus, even if I wanted to, I don’t much like blondes, so Ali’s out as a girlfriend option.”

Johnny laughed again, harder. The idea of her trying to steal his girlfriend apparently hilarious. 

“Dude,” he said after the laughter faded. “Your boyfriend is a blonde.” 

“No, he’s not. His hair is brown.”

Johnny looked at her and scowled. “No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. Bobby Brown has brown hair. It’s in the name.” 

Johnny snorted. “Whatever.” Then, with great effort, he stood up and offered her a hand. “We should probably get back.” 

She accepted the hand and stood up too. Still a little loose-limbed and woozy. Johnny started brushing himself off as he walked, so she followed suit, ambling back to their window. Relaxed and happy, with a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell I hated dissecting frogs in the seventh grade? Also yeah, I know you don't dissect frogs as a Junior but whatever. One more thing about the frogs: that egg thing? Actually happened to me. (No one threw eggs at me but the whole, pregnant frog so full of eggs you can't see the organs) it was nasty. 
> 
> bonus points if you get the reference in Elizabeth's middle name lol
> 
> anyway, as usual I hope you liked it! Big thank you to everyone who's given kudos and commented, y'all keep me going!


	12. Take It Like a Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha so school started and my writing process came to a grinding halt, but things are picking up speed! plot!!

The next two weeks were torture. Well, maybe not torture, but close. Because she spent the night getting high with Johnny and then cleaning the gym while trying to talk him out of eating the leftover pretzels on the ground (seriously, _gross_ ), she didn’t get a chance to talk to Ali until school on Monday. 

She was pretty chill about the whole thing, having had time to cool down, and (Elizabeth suspected) suffering Johnny’s moods for so long. Grounding was already going to be punishment enough, Ali mused, so her pitching a big fit wouldn’t do much. Really, she got off easy. 

Without arguing with Johnny and going out pretty much every night, Elizabeth was really _bored_. And she had no one to complain to because all her friends stopped weathering her complaints after the first two days. 

“Seriously,” Tommy told her around a massive bite of a burger. “You brought this on yourself.”

She should have held out for better friends in August. 

But eventually the weeks came to an end, and Elizabeth made up for it by breaking her curfew every night that week. (She suspected her mom was turning a blind eye because she felt bad. Elizabeth had spent every night of her two-week punishment listening to music on her bed like a loner). 

One week after the end of her grounding, Elizabeth pushed it too far and was running late for class. She’d stupidly let Ali talk her into a midnight movie with the girls, and didn’t get to bed until 4 the night before. The alarm clock stared the time at her when she groggily blinked awake, 30 minutes until she had to be in the dojo. _Shit._

Part of maintaining her spot on the team was being on time. Always, no matter what. Even if Elizabeth was the best student Kreese had (which, she was up there, but she wasn’t the _best_ ), he would still cut her if she showed up even 30 seconds late. She changed into her gi in the car, driving without her shoes on and flying out of the car and down the street the second she put it into park. Elizabeth was sure she looked a sight, running down the street barefoot in a loosely tied gi.

Just as she was about to pass the alley next to the dojo and reach the door, _just in time_ , a hand shot out and pulled her to the side. 

“Woah, hey, what the fuck?” She twisted wildly, trying to pull free from the iron grip on her arm.

“Hey, hey, calm down. We just wanna talk, Nichols,” the guy holding her said. Behind him, four more guys stood around, leaning against the wall. Clearly trying for menacing but failing miserably. She scoffed. 

“As much as I’d love to hang out and talk with you and the Jets, I got class.” She turned to go, and the front guy caught her arm again. 

His green eyes looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place him. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“What, you don’t remember? I’m hurt,” he said, though his tone betrayed no hurt. “We met in August, the food court?”

 _Charlie._ The “fox” (Ali’s words, not hers) who asked her out before she started dating Bobby. “Charlie.”

“You never called,” he confirmed. 

“Sorry. Look, as good as it’s been seeing you again, I really gotta get to class, so,”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “This is really important. It’s gonna take some time, so, I don’t think you’re going to class today.”

The hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention. The guys behind Charlie were flexing their hands, in and out of fists. They were gearing up for a fight. 

“Well,” she said, switching her tone to try for charming. Five guys at once was too much for her. Too much for anyone except maybe Sensei Kreese. “What can I help you boys with?”

Charlie laughed, and his thugs laughed with him. “Now, that’s more like it!”

He began to pull her further into the alley, twisting her wrist until the shoes dropped from her hand. She tried to keep herself from being surrounded, but it was out of her control. Soon, they all loomed over her in a wide semi-circle and her back was to the wall. 

“We wanted to talk about the tournament.”

“The tournament? What, the All Valley?” Elizabeth asked. 

“Yeah. We heard you were entering.” One of the other guys said. 

“So what if I am?” Charming wasn’t working, so she went back to bluster. More natural, anyway.

“You’d be the first girl ever to do it,” Charlie told her.

 _Yeah,_ she thought, _and I’m gonna be a damn good one too._ “Great. Isn’t that what those feminists are all about now? Breaking glass ceilings? Going where no woman has gone before?” Despite her unease, she began to have fun at their expense. “Hey, do you think I’ll get one of those awards, get to be in a magazine or something?”

Charlie’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “See, we don’t think it’s quite right for a girl to be fighting. It’s not ladylike.”

“Huh. You sound like my mothe–” Her taunt was cut off by Charlie’s fist in her gut. 

“Oh–” she groaned. “What the hell?”

Two of his buddies' hands were on her, twisting her arms behind her back and propping her up. Charlie got in her face to speak.“Drop out of the tournament.” 

Elizabeth stared at him for a beat before rearing her head back and headbutting him. She pulled her arms in tight, throwing the other guys’ balance off. Her foot came up and she kicked back hard, dislodging one. The other received an elbow to the face and a fist to his gut. 

As she turned to run, she caught a fist to her stomach by one of the other guys, they grabbed her and pulled her back. _Damn_. Charlie appeared in front of her, enraged and bleeding from the nose. “Listen here you little bitch. Fighting isn’t for girls, so go get your pom-poms and cheer on your little boy toys as they fight in the tournament and you watch, or you’re gonna be in a world of pain, got that?”

Her tongue ran along the roof of her mouth and she spit in his face. He flushed. Struck her throat and then her stomach in quick succession. Her groan was strained. 

He fisted a hand into her hair and yanked her head back so that she looked him in the eye. “You wanna fight like a boy? Then you gotta learn to take a beating like a man. Hold her up.”

“What, you can’t fight me by yourself? You need your buddies to hold me back? Thought girls weren’t made for fighting,” She sneered. 

Charlie’s laugh was almost as cruel as his foot to her stomach, but not quite. She sagged down in her attackers' arms, desperate for reprieve. They released her. 

Her wrist was caught by Charlie when she swung at him, and his fist came hard into her ribs. A foot came up and hit the side opposite of Charlie’s fist. She dropped. 

Feet found her again and again, and all she could do was pull her hands up over her head and pray it ended quickly. 

God, didn’t _anyone_ see this? It was 11 am on a Saturday for christ’s sake. 

One hard kick landed just right on her arms to thrust her head back into the wall behind her. Blackness rose up in her eyes and she didn’t bother fighting it. 

\--

“Hey man, where’s Elizabeth?” Johnny asked, looking around. She was never late. 

Bobby shrugged, eyebrows furrowing. “I don’t know. I drove by to pick her up earlier, but her mom said she’d already left. I thought she’d be here by now. Dutch, have you seen Elizabeth?”

Dutch shook his head. “She’s not here? Class starts in like 5 minutes.”

“Elizabeth’s not here?” Tommy asked loudly. They all shushed him. “Kreese is gonna blow a gasket.”

Johnny felt a sinking feeling in his chest. If one of them were late, Kreese would probably make them do 50 push ups on their knuckles. If Elizabeth showed up late, he’d probably kick her off the team. 

“Jimmy, hey, Jimmy. Have you seen Elizabeth? Or heard from her?” There was a note of panic in Bobby’s voice. 

He shrugged. “Sorry, man.”

“Alright class.” Kreese came strolling out of his office. _Shit._

“Johnny,” Bobby said urgently. “Something is wrong. She’d never miss class. Not even if she was puking her guts out.”

Johnny knew that, but there was nothing he could do. 

“Fall in.” Kreese ordered. 

The empty space loomed. Kreese raised an eyebrow.

“Where’s Nichols?” 

Bobby and Johnny shared a look. “We’re not sure, sensei,” Bobby said hesitantly. 

Kreese studied them with an unreadable expression. “Well, that’s unfortunate. Winters.”

The brown belt at the back of the room snapped to attention. “Yes, sensei?”

“Fill the empty space please.”

He hesitated, then hustled forward to take her space. Right between Jimmy and Tommy. 

Johnny watched, stunned. He couldn’t believe Sensei would replace her that quickly. “Sensei, I’m sure she’s just late. You don’t need–”

“She understood the conditions of keeping her place on this team. She’s late, she’s out.”

Bobby looked at him, and he shrugged helplessly. Sensei’s word was final. There was nothing to do. 

“Mr. Lawrence, warm them up.”

“Yes, sensei.” He moved to the front of the group and bowed. They all followed suit. “Hai.”

He straightened up, and the warm-up began.

All throughout the class, the group spared looks at James standing in Elizabeth’s place. It was disconcerting, looking over and seeing the blonde brown belt instead of the brunette black belt. He kept expecting a swaying ponytail only to find a shock of badly bleached hair. 

Kreese paired Johnny and James up to spar. It wasn’t really fair to pit a brown belt against last year’s All Valley champ, but they squared off nonetheless. The freaked out look in James’ eyes was almost enough to distract Johnny from the weird ache in his chest. 

He figured, as he began the dance of strikes and counterstrikes, that he should be happy. One less place that Ickles was encroaching on his life. His chest ached. 

He was about to deliver James’ death blow when a group of guys came running out of the alley next to the dojo. 

One caught his eye and flipped him off. There was blood on his hand. A fist hit his side. He was confused for a second, how had that guy hit him through glass? Then he realized.

Class. Sparring. He was sparring James. 

“Point Winters.” Kreese barked. He was losing to James. 

James looked as surprised as Johnny felt. He kept staring at his fist like it would explain what had just happened. 

“Back in the circle,” Kreese ordered with a disapproving frown. 

As he settled in next to Bobby, “What the hell man?”

Johnny ignored it. “Did you recognize those guys?”

Bobby’s forehead creased. “What guys? What’s going on with you?”

“Mr. Brown, Mr. Kain.” Bobby nodded and walked into the circle, concerned eyes still on Johnny. 

By the end of class, Johnny had forgotten the bloodied middle finger and the boy it was attached to. He half expected Kreese to order him to stay late, berate him about distractions, but he was dismissed with the rest of the class. 

They dressed and all trailed out, laughing at something Tommy said while they walked to their bikes. While they passed the alley, a figure caught Johnny’s eye. It looked almost like a person. A person in a gi. A Cobra Kai gi. 

He stopped. “Wait, is that–'' Johnny trailed off, already walking toward the crumpled heap of a girl on the ground. “Elizabeth?”

The heap groaned as it shifted, turning toward the voice, and her face was swollen and bloody, but it was definitely her. 

“Elizabeth,” Johnny repeated, urgent, as he knelt and dropped a hand to her shoulder. “Guys!”

Bobby was at his side when he looked up, Dutch and Tommy were further back, horrified. 

Elizabeth groaned again, arm coming up toward her face, almost as if to protect herself. Like he thought she was someone else. Anger flared up in him, the burning intensity of it threatening to choke him. Bobby stepped over to the other side of her, and they shared a look. Together, they gently slid their arms under her and helped her sit up. She slumped over immediately, the lean line of her body pressing into his. 

“Bobby?” Elizabeth croaked, tilting her head back to look painfully into Johnny’s eyes. Something inside him twisted. 

“I’m right here baby.” Bobby pulled her to him, studying her with a look like they were the only two people in the world. 

“Thought I told you not to call me that,” she mumbled, and Bobby let out a wet laugh. 

“What happened? Who did this to you?”

“We should get her inside,” Johnny cut in. “Sensei will know what to do. Guys?”

Johnny looked to Dutch and Tommy, who nodded before taking off toward the dojo. He stood up and reached out, and Bobby shifted her forward. Together they got her standing, an arm on each of their shoulders. This seemed to rouse her a little. 

“I tried–” she coughed. Her steps were slow, dragging. Johnny realized she wasn’t wearing any shoes. “I tried to fight them off, but there were too many.”

“Too many of who? Who did this to you?” Bobby’s urgency shifted his arm, which jostled Elizabeth’s head. It fell backward. Her eyes were unfocused, glassy. 

“Too many,” she confirmed. “They were mad about the tournament.”

“The tournament?” Johnny asked. “The All Valley?”

Elizabeth nodded and stumbled again. They tightened their holds until they were practically carrying her. 

Kreese met them at the door, expression impassive as ever. “Take her into the back, the locker room,” was all he said before he walked to his office to get something. Johnny nodded at his back and the two of them began drag-walking her through the room, trying to be careful of her feet. She’d given up completely on walking and talking, hanging limply in their arms. 

When they set her down, gi sliding off her shoulders, she began to speak again. “Told me not to fight–” she mumbled. 

“Told you not, what? Not to fight them?” Bobby asked. She shook her head and then grimaced.

Kreese came in with the hefty looking bag they used for tournaments and serious dojo injuries. The last time he’d seen that thing, Jimmy had broken his arm. Elizabeth slumped back into the lockers, and in the light, they began to see the full extent of the damage. 

Her right eye was swollen nearly shut and a deep purple that was almost black. Blood dripped from her nose and her lip was bleeding and swollen around a cut. A cut ran wide and shallow along her left cheekbone.

“Not to fight–” Elizabeth returned to her thought. “The tournament,” she gasped as Kreese probed the cut along her cheekbone. “Said not to fight in the tournament.”

Kreese handed a cloth and a bowl to Tommy. “Go get this wet and fill this up.” He nodded and rushed to the sink. 

“What about the tournament?” Kreese asked them, tilting her head gently from side to side. 

Johnny shook his head, still lost. “I don’t know, she keeps saying someone told her she shouldn’t fight.”

“I see.” Tommy returned with the cloth, and Kreese began methodically cleaning and bandaging her face. He wiped the blood from her face, folding the towel and dipping it into the bowl between strokes. She had a fair amount of dirt on her as well, _from the ground_ Johnny realized, and soon the water was filthy. He applied butterfly bandages to close the wound on her cheek and lip and gave her eye another gentle probe before shaking his head. Even as gentle as he was being, more gentle than he’d ever been with any of the rest of them, Johnny could see Elizabeth grinding her teeth so that she wouldn’t cry out. 

“I need to check your ribs now, Ms. Nichols. I’m going to need to take your gi off to do that, okay?”

She nodded and let herself be maneuvered by the guys as they slid the gi from her arms. 

Beside him, Johnny heard Bobby’s sharp intake of breath. He had to agree. Bruises bloomed all along her torso. Forget broken ribs, she’d be lucky if her lung wasn’t punctured. 

“They kicked me while I was on the ground,” she said miserably. “I had to pull my arms up to protect my head, so they went after my sides instead.”

Johnny felt so nauseous at the sight he had to turn away. Being vicious with guys was one thing, but those assholes kicked a girl _while she was on the ground_. “Bobby–” he started. 

“I know. Shit, I know.” His normally kind demeanor was replaced with something murderous. 

Perhaps sensing his mood, Sensei turned to him and tilted his head toward the bag. “Get out the pack and ice her face, will you? I need some of that swelling to go down so I can assess the damage to her eye.”

Johnny nodded and set to rifling through the bag. At the first press of the bag, she flinched away from his touch, but he slid a hand behind her neck to steady her. 

“I’m going to check your ribs now.” Elizabeth nodded. Kreese placed a careful hand at the top of her ribs just under where her bra rested. “Take a deep breath for me.”

Her breath, steady at first, turned into a small gasp as Kreese pushed down. “In. That’s it. Now out.”

Her head tossed in Johnny’s grip. Bobby swung a leg over the bench on the opposite side of her and took her hand in his. 

Kreese continued that way for several minutes, checking each rib in turn. He frowned and released her completely. “Did they get your legs at all?”

She shifted, considering. “My feet maybe? I was barefoot when they got me.”

“We should check. Help her stand.”

They did, slid her pants off, and sat her back down. There was a stray cut on her shin, a bruise on one of her thighs, but the real damage was to her feet. They were cut and bloodied. One of her toes sat at an odd angle. Kreese cleaned them up and they slid her pants back on. 

He pressed the ice pack back to her face and she shivered. Johnny realized it was the first time he’d ever seen her cold. 

“Here, let me see–” Kreese’s hand was on his wrist, pulling the ice pack away. The swelling had gone down almost completely and her eye was blackened. There was a small cut above her eyebrow. Kreese smoothed a bandage over it. 

He finally pulled back, placing his hands on his thighs. 

‘Are–” Bobby cleared his throat. “Are her ribs okay?”

“A couple are broken, but luckily it's a clean break. Nothing to do but let time heal them. Let’s take a look at those arms.”

There were rough scrapes along her forearms and knuckles, surrounded by even more bruising. He spied a scuff mark along her wrist that could have only been left by a shoe. From where she’d been protecting her head. He felt sick again. 

Sensei finished his treatment completely and they slid her gi back onto her. 

Elizabeth looked down at her open gi and muttered, “Those fuckers stole my belt.” 

“That’s alright,” Kreese began. “We can get you a new–”

She shot up and swayed in place. “They stole my bag!”

Bobby stood up, braced her shoulders, guiding her back down. “It’s okay, Elizabeth–”

“No, shit, they took my bag, my bag had my car keys in it. They fucking stranded me. If they didn’t steal it.” She tried to stand again. “I need to go ch–”

“Absolutely not,” Kreese said, right as Johnny and Bobby both said “No.”

Her eyes watered. “Ms. Nichols,” Kreese said firmly. “You need to tell us what happened.”  
She took a deep breath, turned her head to the side, and told them. 

At some point in the story, Bobby stood up and began pacing. 

Johnny carefully studied the row of lockers behind Elizabeth. 

“They told me if I wanted to fight like a boy, then I needed to learn to take a beating like one,” she finished. Johnny clenched his fist and considered punching the lockers.

“And you knew these guys?” Bobby asked. He sat back down and took Elizabeth’s hand again. 

“Well I only really knew the one, Charlie, and we only met once. I don’t even know his last name. We bumped into each other at the food court at the mall on the first day of school.”

Johnny would be willing to bet there was more to that story. He thought about punching the lockers again. 

“What do we do?” Elizabeth asked, but it wasn’t a question for him, she was looking at their sensei. 

“We’re gonna find these guys and beat the shit out of them. That’s what we’re gonna do,” Bobby said, pacing resumed. “We’re gonna show them what happens when you fuck with a Cobra Kai.”

“Bobby stop.” For the first time, Elizabeth’s voice rose below the low pitch it had been at since they found her. Bobby sat down again. “Sensei?”

Sensei was silent for a moment. “Are you going to drop out of the tournament?”

“What? No!” 

Kreese feigned innocence. “But they want you to drop out, yes? What if they attack again? What if they keep attacking until you quit, or worse?”

Johnny felt a shiver pass along his spine. 

“Cobra Kai never dies, right? I won’t quit. Not for those assholes, not for anyone." Elizabeth was so tense she nearly trembled. “I’m fighting in that tournament.”

“How will we keep you safe long enough to get there?”

Bobby put an arm around her. “We’ll make sure she’s safe. They won’t dare attack her if we’re around.” 

“Even if that were true, you can’t be with her all the time. What if they find out where you live, Nichols? Follow you home? These enemies won’t go away if we ask nicely.”

“I– I don’t–”

“We have to strike back.” Johnny said. Elizabeth looked at him, surprised. He was surprised too. A few months ago, Elizabeth dropping out of the tournament, out of Cobra Kai, would have been his dream scenario. “Bobby was right. We have to find these guys and show them we’re a team. If you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us.”

“Great plan,” Elizabeth said sarcastically. “Except we have no idea who these guys are or where to find them.”

“Well if they stole your car we’ll have one sure way to track them,” Johnny snapped. She should want these guys to hurt, he couldn’t figure out why she seemed so reticent to go after them. 

“I’m just saying it might be a bad plan to go after these guys blind,” Elizabeth snapped back, voice rising. “Why not just wait until the tournament and kick their asses there? There’s no way they’ll win, I mean they were way bigger than me and it took _five_ of them and they barely took me down.”

Johnny snorted, thinking this is a slight overestimation of Elizabeth’s skills, considering the number of broken ribs she has. She looked at him sharply. “What?” 

“I just think you’re being a little naive about this,” Johnny said. 

“Naive? Seriously?” She asked incredulously. 

“Elizabeth–” Bobby started, warning in his voice. 

“No, Bobby.” She turned fully toward Johnny, coughing to cover her pained groan. “What the hell is your problem, man?”

Johnny felt something complicated and heady twist in his stomach. Anger and concern and something like longing that definitely wasn’t longing because he _had a girlfriend_. “My problem is you got your ass kicked into next _year_ and you think that you’re gonna be able to work things out with them in a _tournament_.”

“And your brilliant plan is to, what? Track them down like Clint Eastwood in fucking Magnum Force and extract justice?” 

“Well we can’t just do nothing!” Johnny burst out.

“I’m not suggesting we do nothing!” Elizabeth yelled back and then winced. She grabbed her ribs and continued. “I’m suggesting we fight them at the tournament, where we know they'll be and we know we’ll beat them.” 

She made a small pained noise and Bobby put a hand on her shoulder, easing her back. “Guys. Come on. Arguing isn’t gonna solve anything.”

“Yeah, but fighting is right?” Elizabeth said snidely, before standing up with considerable effort and hobbling out of the locker room. 

Bobby sighed and took off after her. Johnny followed. Sensei hung back. “Elizabeth. Hey, Elizabeth. Stop.”

Bobby caught up to her easily and grabbed her shoulder. She twisted away from him hard and let out a pained cry, but still stubbornly tried to move away.

“Let me _go_ , Bobby, seriously come _on_.”

“No. Elizabeth,” Bobby’s voice was strained as he tried to grapple her without hurting her. “Johnny, help.” 

Johnny quickly moved forward and caught her feet as they kicked out. Bobby’s arms were hooked through Elizabeth’s armpits. When they lifted her up, she sagged her full weight down. They set her on the mat. 

Johnny looked into her eyes, which were shining with tears. He sighed. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth.”

Her face twisted and she pulled her feet out of his grip, pulling her knees to her chest. She buried her face in her arms. “Just take me home,” she said, voice muffled. 

Bobby rubbed her back gently. “Okay, yeah. I’ll take you home. Come on.” 

He gently scooped her up and carried her bridal style. Standing at five foot nine with enough muscle to distinguish her from the volleyball-type athletes at their school, Elizabeth hardly ever looked small. But the way she hung in Bobby’s arms with her head nestled into his neck, Johnny couldn’t help but think she looked it. Small. Defenseless. 

Bobby nodded toward his things, and Johnny nodded and grabbed them, trailing them out to the car. With the door open, Bobby placed her in the front seat and leaned over her to get the seatbelt. She wasn’t asleep, but she might as well have been. 

When they drove off, Johnny leaned against the wall of the dojo and let his head thunk back onto it. His stomach swam with an annoying blend of indecipherable emotions. He tried to remember everything he could about the guys who ran past the window, give them something to go off of, but all he could see was the finger, shining with Elizabeth’s blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some angst for the new month. hope y'all enjoyed :)


	13. Scrapes and Bruises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took longer than expected because my mind went about 100 different directions when trying to write this chapter. Originally it was going to be longer, and then I kinda broke it into two parts. Luckily, the chapter _after_ next (15, I think?) is already written, so I should be able to crank out the next two fairly quickly. then it's onto the all-valley! 
> 
> You can thank the fact that my school gave us three straight ice days for this chapter, and my soon to be poor grades in my classes bc I've ignored all my readings to do this. gotta love my single-minded dedication to not working whilst in my apartment.

Everything hurt. Standing hurt, walking hurt, sitting hurt, even _sleeping_ hurt. 

Fighting also hurt, but she wasn’t doing much of that anyway. When she came home bleeding and bruised, her mother had pitched an absolute fit. Even though Elizabeth insisted she was (mostly) fine, and didn’t need a hospital, she got taken to one anyway. The doctor checked her for a concussion (now, apparently, her mom would have to wake her up every four hours to make sure she didn’t die or something), took x-rays of her ribs (two broken, just like Sensei had said), set her broken toe, and told her to “take it easy” for at least two weeks while she healed. No karate for two weeks, though if her mother had her wish, Elizabeth would never set foot on a mat again. 

And then her father called the police. 

They put out some kind of watch for her car, but the policeman told her it wasn’t likely to be found. L.A. was a big city, and the cops had more to worry about than karate gangs and stolen cars. She ached, thinking about her baby being taken for joyrides by those jagweeds, but there wasn’t anything to do but let the police do their work and hope they got caught. Hope they didn’t crash her car first.

Jesus. 

At home, “You’re quitting.” Her mother said, the second the door closed. No room for argument.

But Elizabeth could make some. “No.” Her voice was rough. Bruised trachea, the doctor had said. 

“It’s not up for debate. You’re quitting. This ends now.” 

“If I quit now, those guys win!”

“Win what?” Her mother asked, exasperated. “The tournament? You have other teammates entering. Bobby’s an excellent fighter.”

She’d never even seen him fight. “It’s not about the _tournament_.”

“Then what _is_ it about?”

The noise that came out of her throat was somewhere between a scoff and a sigh. “You wouldn’t understand.”  
“Let’s sit down.” Once sitting, her mother grabbed onto her shoulders, but it wasn’t rough. The look in her eyes was pleading. “Make me understand. Because right now I’m terrified of sending my daughter out into a world that she seems intent on fighting.”

“I don’t try to fight the world mom, it just comes at you. You have to be ready. _I_ have to be ready.”

“Ready for what?” 

“Ready for this!” Elizabeth gestured down at herself. “Ready for when the world comes to kick you down. You have to be ready to fight. To win. That’s what the tournament is. It’s a chance for me to prove that they didn’t win. Won’t win.”

“Except they already did! I’m not sure what your measure of winning is supposed to be, but them getting away unscathed while you check into a hospital–”

“I didn’t need a hospital.”

“Is _their_ victory!”

Elizabeth waved a hand dismissively. “They won the battle.”

“Life isn’t a war!” 

The expression on her mother’s face made her feel nauseous. Like she didn’t recognize her own daughter. Elizabeth started to stand up, but she was stopped by a hand on her arm. 

“Karate is supposed to be something fun you do to keep you active. Balanced. You told me it _helped_ your anger, not that it made it worse! Look at me.” She obeyed. “I don’t like this version of you. I’m scared for you.”

Elizabeth turned to her mom. Took both of her hands. Let the silence settle before she spoke. “Mom, I need to fight in this tournament. Please.”

Her mom met her gaze for a beat. Two. Took a deep breath. “Okay.” But before Elizabeth could get too excited, “I’m not saying yes, _but_ I’m not saying no either. I need some time to think. Talk it over with your father.”

Elizabeth jumped up. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” 

“It’s not a yes yet,” she reminded her daughter.

“Yet!” If her movements weren’t so jerky and awkward, you might call them dance moves.

“Or maybe at all, give me two weeks.”

Her dance stopped. “Two weeks?”

“Just while you’re resting and recovering.”

“But–” but there’s no way Sensei Kreese would let her be away that long. But there’s no way she’d be ready in time for the tournament without those two weeks. But those two weeks gave her mom way too much time to change her mind and keep her out of karate forever. 

“But nothing.” Her mother said firmly. “Two weeks. I’ll speak with your sensei, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’m sure he will.” A lie. He sure wouldn’t. “I’m gonna go lay down. I’m beat.” This, at least, was true. It’d been a long day. 

“Of course. And honey?” Her mother stood up, grabbed her shoulders. “You know I love you? I just want what’s best for you.”

She nodded. Repeated, “Of course.” Let herself be pulled into a hug and tried to fight the tears that rose at the comfort of it. Being held by her mom, like she was a little kid again. “Love you too.” 

\--

The next day Bobby came in, sweet-talked his way past her mom to bring her fries and a milkshake from In N Out and (Elizabeth suspected) check in on her condition. 

“How are you doing?” Bobby asked her. 

Elizabeth took a long draw of her milkshake before answering. Chocolate.“I’m concussed,” she informed him. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, my mom dragged me to a hospital after you brought me home yesterday and now she has to wake me up every four hours so I don’t slip into a coma. I’m exhausted.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well it’s not your fault,” she sighed, loudly with too much fanfare to make him laugh. He offered her a small smile. 

“How do you feel?” he asked, and really, hadn’t he already asked that?

“I’m fine, Bobby.” A look. “A little sore,” she admitted. 

“I didn’t mean physically,” he offered. He nudged her hand. Took it in his. “It’s okay to admit you’re shaken up. I think we all are.”

Honestly, she had to be the luckiest girl in California, on the West Coast even. No way other girls were getting guys who actually pushed them to talk about their feelings. Bobby was good at that, had been since day one with her. He never let her do the passive-aggressive “I’m fine, no really” bullshit. 

He would make a good counselor, she thought. Or a priest. 

Elizabeth let out a shaky breath and turned her hand over so it was holding his. “I don’t know that shaken up is the right word. I don’t even know what I feel really.”

She reached for her fries and realized her hand was trembling. Bobby took that one too. Pressed both of her hands between his.

“Scared?” Bobby asked, not unkindly. 

She shook her head. Again when Bobby gave her that look. “Honestly, no. I’m not scared of Charlie and his assholes. If it were just Charlie and I in that alley, or on a mat, I’d beat him. I know I would. It’s just,” she shifted on the bed, facing Bobby better. 

“If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be facing any of this crap for wanting to fight. I’d just– fight. And I wouldn’t have to beg for anyone’s respect. But, as a girl? Every time I put on my gi I have to prove that I belong in it. That I’m not too weak to fight. No one will ever see me in a Cobra jacket and assume it’s mine. That I earned it. They’ll assume that I got it because I’m dating one of you guys.”

“But you are,” Bobby said.

“I am,” she said, taking Bobby’s hand. “But I’m a cobra too. In my own right. I’m not weak because I’m a girl.”

“I know that,” Bobby said immediately. 

“I know _you_ do, but not everyone does. Charlie definitely doesn’t. It just sucks that people will always see me as weak because of my gender, you know?”

Bobby nodded, even though he couldn’t possibly understand, not fully. “For what it’s worth, I think Charlie sees you as more of a worthy adversary than he lets on.”

“Oh yeah? What makes you think?”

“He brought four guys with him to confront you. If he thought he could take you himself, he wouldn't need them.”

She allowed herself a small smile. “Maybe they were to deal with you guys, if you caught wise.”

“They’d need about 50 guys to take all of us on. Even then it’d barely be a fair fight.” 

Elizabeth laughed. “You know, I think you’re right.”

He smiled at her, knocking their knees together. She smiled back, let herself get lost in his eyes. 

Just as they leaned in, the door banged open. And they jumped about a mile in the air, upsetting their food. 

Her mother leaned in, giving them each a severe look in turn. “Two inches,” she reminded them. 

“Got it, Mom,” Elizabeth replied, forcing a smile. 

She leaned on the door frame. “So, Bobby, how are you doing?”

Elizabeth stood up and walked over to the door as Bobby stuttered out a reply. “Thanks, Mom.” She said, a little too loud.

She tried to shut the door, but her mom put a foot in it. “Two inches, or do you need me to get a ruler?”

“No ruler.” Elizabeth pulled the door open a hair, so she could see her mother’s barely contained glee at their discomfort. “Two inches.”

“Two inches,” her mother repeated, like they didn’t hear her the first two times. 

“Bye, Mom.”

“You kids have fun,” she said, backing away. “But no canoodling!”

“Mom!” 

Elizabeth heard her laugh echo down the staircase. When she turned back to Bobby, his face was bright red. He was cute when he was embarrassed. 

“You know we’ve been dating for two months and you’re still scared of my parents?”

“I’m not scared of your parents,” Bobby scoffed. His face still very red. 

“No, just scared of being my boyfriend around them.” And then, just to see him blush more, she dropped into his lap. 

His hands immediately jumped to her hips, flexed, as if he couldn’t decide whether to push her off or keep her there. “Woah, hey, your mom _just_ said no canoodling.”

Elizabeth smirked. He was bushing hard, eyes darting all over the place. “What are you, eighty? Who the fuck says canoodling anymore?”

“Your mom, mn, your mom just did.” 

“So what, you’re gonna start doing everything my mom does?” She dropped down to kiss him. 

“I am not acting like your _mother_ ,” he insisted when they broke apart. 

“Well, let’s see. You’re using words like canoodling, you’re obsessed with my _feelings_ and my _safety_.” Talking about her mom while kissing her boyfriend was a weird and dangerous line to walk. She knew this, and she did it anyway. 

“I am your boyfriend, it would be weird if I didn’t care about your feelings or your safety,” Bobby told her. She rewarded his logical thinking with a kiss. When they broke apart again, “Can we not talk about your mom while you’re sitting in my lap? Talk about mixed signals.”

Elizabeth nodded, kissed him hard. Her brain still barrelled along that train of thought. She needed to find the conductor and kill him. Instead, she huffed a laugh. “You know, you even do that comforting hand-holding thing she–” sprung back off his lap. “Holy shit I’m dating my mom.”

“What?” Bobby asked. And, yeah, she could appreciate his confusion. “No you’re not.” 

“Yeah, oh my god there’s so many similarities.” She began to pace. 

“Name one.”

“I just named three: you’re all like, worried about my safety, obsessed with getting me to talk about my feelings, you even have the same…” She waved her hands emphatically. “Mannerisms.” 

“We do not!” Bobby grabbed her arm in an uncomfortably familiar way. 

Elizabeth made a noise and shook off his arm. “Ah, there! That arm grab, rub, thing that’s exactly what she would do!”

Bobby was beginning to look panicked. “Okay, okay.” He ran a hand through his hair as Elizabeth paced away from him. “We can fix this.”

“How?”

“You can,” he looked around her room for inspiration. “You can write down a list of all the things your mother does, and I won’t do them!” He thrust a pen and a notepad at her. 

Elizabeth looked down at them, then up at the wild look in her boyfriend's eyes. She burst out laughing. 

“What?” He asked, and the sincere look in his eyes made her laugh harder. She had to sit on the bed and hold her ribs. 

“What?” He repeated, but he laughed a little too. “What now?”

“I can’t believe you just–” Elizabeth wiped tears from her eyes. Flopped back onto the bed. “Offered to keep a list of all my mom’s mannerisms to avoid acting like her.”

“You are such an asshole,” Bobby said, without venom. He flopped onto the bed next to her. 

“Yeah, but you love it,” she said, and then blanched. _Whoops._ They hadn’t said that yet. She sat up, face flushing. 

Bobby sat up with her. “What did you say?” He didn’t sound freaked out, but still. She didn’t dare look at him. 

Elizabeth stood up to walk away. Nowhere to go, except away. Away from the embarrassment. Away from–

“I love you, you know?” Bobby told her, catching her arm. 

Elizabeth looked up at him, surprised. There was no trace of mockery in his face. “Really?”

He swallowed hard. “Well, yeah. Do you, I mean, you don’t have to–”

She cut off that stupid question with a kiss, kicking her door shut behind her. Damn the two inches. 

She kissed him hard back toward the bed. Knelt over his lap again. Broke away for a second. “I love you too. So much.”

“Yeah?” Bobby asked, face indescribably happy. 

“Yeah.” And they were kissing again. He slid a hand down to her waist, got a good grip, and flipped them. Put a hand next to her head and kissed her hard into the bed. 

She twisted, trying to reach for his shirt, feel his skin, when pain flared in her torso. She gasped. 

Bobby was off her in a second. “What? What’s wrong?”

Elizabeth held herself, struggling to get a full breath. “Nothing. Come here.”

He hesitated. “I don’t wanna hurt you.”

She huffed. “You’re not gonna hurt me.” Reached out for him. He caught her hands and held them. 

“Didn’t the doctor say no strenuous activity for two weeks?” He asked. 

“So?” 

“So, maybe we oughta take it easy.” 

“Please, he meant like, exercise. Not this.” Elizabeth said, gesturing between them as best she could with her hands trapped in Bobby’s.

“Well, this is kinda like exercise if you’re doing it right.” He said, waggling his eyebrows for emphasis. 

“Oh really?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe you oughta show me how to do it right then,” Elizabeth told him, sliding closer. She tangled a hand in the front of his shirt and nosed along his jaw. 

“Hm, maybe.” He said slowly, kissing her for just a second and scrambling her brain. He only let her have it for a couple of seconds before pulling away, “in two weeks.” 

“C’mon,” she whined. 

“Two weeks.” He said again, kissing her nose. 

“Fine. Two weeks.” She mumbled. And then jumped as the door to her room flew open. 

“Two inches,” her dad called as he breezed by, not even stopping to look in. The first time. A couple minutes later he came by again, towel in hand from his ridiculous cross-house trip. 

They were sitting on her bed doing homework. Swear to God. 

“Always good to see you, Bobby,” her dad said. “Even better when I can see you without having to open the door.”

“We get it, Dad,” Elizabeth told him, not looking up from her derivatives. 

“Good to see you too, Mr. Nichols.” There was that blush again. 

“Please, call me Jim.” 

“Really?” Bobby asked, perking up. 

“No.” Elizabeth snorted. “Keep this door _open_.” He said to her. “Two inches, or it’s coming off, you hear me?”

“I hear you, Dad.”

“Yeah, sure.” 

“Your parents are very serious about the door thing,” Bobby noted when he left. 

“They’ll ease up in a couple of months, you’ll see.” 

“You said that two months ago,” he shot back. 

“Yeah, and this time I’m right.” She said haughtily.

“How do you know that?” 

“Because I’m never wrong twice,” Elizabeth replied easily. Bobby made a noise of disbelief but didn’t push it. “Now, remind me. Are you any good at derivatives? Because I have no idea what I’m looking at.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has it all! angst, mild gender envy, weird make out conversations, and calculus. What more could you want?
> 
> also fun (not even in the slightest) fact, I just wrote the outline of the breakup scene with Bobby and Elizabeth (dw it's still a couple of months away) and it's heartbreaking so.. that's fun. 
> 
> as always, hope y'all enjoyed, lmk what you think. your comments are always so appreciated, even if I take a day or two to respond.


	14. Preparations

The guys refused to leave her alone after that. Johnny picked her up for school in the mornings (he even let her ride in the front seat with minimal whining). Jimmy walked her to fist period, and Tommy usually walked with her to second. Bobby of course walked with her to third period, and then from third period to gym. 

Ali (the honorary Cobra), stayed with her for all of gym class, changing, keeping up while they ran the mile, and even showered next to her. Bobby and the rest of them crowded around at lunch, pointing out various guys as potential suspects, but she didn’t recognize any of them. Whoever these guys were, they didn’t go to their school. 

They all walked together to bio class (Mr. Caldwell still hated her guts), and Bobby dropped her off at study hall. He tried to sneak in and sit with her, but Elizabeth insisted that he actually go to his classes. 

“You can’t be with me all the time,” she reminded him. 

After school, Bobby brought her home and stayed with her until her mom got home from whatever social engagements she spent the day at. 

It all made her feel like a very tall toddler. 

Even their after-school hangouts became muted. 

Instead of throwing big parties, Jimmy only invited over their small group to sit around drinking beer and playing games. If they went to movies, it was never after dark and they never hung around in the lobby long. They didn’t accept invitations to other people’s parties, they never spent much time at the beach after sundown, and they stopped going to the mall almost completely. 

Well, with Elizabeth. Though she had no proof, Elizabeth still had the sneaking suspicion that they were spending all their time apart from her looking for Charlie. Haunting the mall, staking out other dojos, trying to find Charlie and his gang of thugs to exact justice. Strike back.

All while she sat at home and did homework. 

At least her grades were good. 

The one plus side to her sudden security detail was that she was spending a lot more time with Bobby, but even that became strained after a while. He wouldn’t take her anywhere, wouldn’t do anything unless he could ensure she was completely safe. 

Elizabeth felt like a scream was building inside of her, ready to burst out. She wasn’t made of glass, and she was tired of being treated like she was. Especially by Bobby, who _knew_ she was tough.

They were on the bed one day, Elizabeth sitting on his lap, knees hugging his hips, and Bobby kept looking at the door. More than once, Elizabeth placed her hand just under his chin and brought his head forward, deepening the kiss to prove a point, but he kept looking anyway. First with his eyes, then his whole head when Elizabeth broke off to kiss down his neck. 

“Do you need to go or something?” Elizabeth asked finally, verging on annoyed. 

“What?” Bobby’s head turned to her before his eyes did. “Oh, no. It’s all good.” He smiled and slid a hand up into her hair, bringing her back to him. 

She hummed happily and they went back to their kiss, lazily making out for several moments before Bobby’s eyes broke away again. 

“Okay,” Elizabeth said, leaning back. “What is your deal?”

Bobby had the nerve to look surprised. “What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? You’ve got a girl on your lap and you keep looking at the _door_. Is my room like, haunted or something? Can you see something I can’t?”

“What? No.” Bobby shifted, and she could feel his excitement through his jeans. At least some part of him was invested in this. “It’s just– are you sure closing the door is the best idea?” he asked finally.

“You’d rather let anyone who wanders by see what we’re doing?” She asked, eyebrows raised. 

“Well, no, but your mom is pretty strict about the whole _no boys in a room with a closed door_ thing.”

“Yeah, but,” She shifted her hips as she pretended to consider his point, and heard his breath catch. Her lips twitched. “This way we at least get some warning if they come up, they’ll have to knock, or at the very least stomp up to the door. We can pretend to do homework or something.” 

Elizabeth leaned in and started kissing up his neck while moving her hips. Bobby had been her first, well was _going_ to be her first, but she knew how to do this at least, distract him. 

“Yeah but–” His voice caught and he had to clear his throat. “I don’t think we’ll be able to hide what we were doing very well. Especially not if…” he trailed off. 

“Not if what?” Elizabeth asked innocently, shifting her hips slowly again. 

“Not if you keep doing that,” Bobby said in a rush as he grabbed her hips. She laughed lightly and kissed him again.

Bobby let her, for a few seconds, before breaking off again. “Seriously, Elizabeth, what if your dad caught us? He’d be pissed.”

Elizabeth nodded, bit his earlobe. “He’d probably skin you alive.” 

“Aren’t you-hm, aren’t you even a little worried about that possibility?” 

Elizabeth sighed and pulled back for real this time. Stopped moving. “Honestly? No. He’s gonna be at the office for hours anyway.”

His hand skimmed along her side. “Yeah, but, what if he comes home early?”

“He never comes home early from work. The house could be on fire and he’d still have ‘one more quick thing’ to finish up at the office.”

“But–” Elizabeth sighed and slid off his lap to lay on the bed next to him. 

“They’re not gonna find us. But if you’re that worried about it, why don’t we go to your house?”

Bobby gave her a look. “You know my parents are worse than yours. They wouldn’t let us get past the living room.”

She huffed and stood up. “Well, then why don’t we take your car? Go park it in the woods and steam up the windows?” She could hear herself becoming snippier and she didn’t know why. Bobby was being perfectly reasonable, and she certainly didn’t _want_ them to get caught with their pants down, but she wished he would be a little braver. Riskier. 

_Risky? Like sneaking out of detention to smoke a blunt risky?_ A snide voice asked her. And she wished that thought hadn’t come up, because now she was thinking about the wrong guy. 

Bobby didn’t catch on to her inner turmoil, or the sarcasm inherent in a suggestion like that. “We’d get arrested for public indecency. And then our parents wouldn’t let us within six feet of each other.” 

“Well then let's get metal chastity belts and wear them until we turn 18 and get married and can buy a house?” She snapped, and then immediately felt horrible. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m just,”

Bobby’s eyebrows knitted together and he stood up. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I just–” She buried her face in her hands, embarrassed and annoyed. 

“Is it Charlie?” He asked, placing a gentle arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay to be shaken. Scared, even.” She shrugged it off. Irritated. 

“It’s not Charlie. I’m not scared.”

“Then what?” 

“It’s the– fucking– security detail. I get driven to school and then straight back. I’m walked to _every one_ of my classes.” Once she was rolling, she couldn’t stop. “We never go anywhere after dark, or anywhere at all if we don’t have a list of every goddamn person who’s gonna be there. I’m sick of it! I feel like I’m on house arrest and I didn’t even do anything wrong!” By the time she finished, Elizabeth was yelling. Bobby looked stunned. 

“We’re just trying to keep you safe,” he said softly. Somehow, it irritated her even more. 

“I don’t need to be kept safe.” He rolled his eyes. “In case you forgot, I’m a _blackbelt_ Bobby. I can take care of my goddamned self.”

“You’ll take care of yourself?” He asked incredulously. “The way you took care of yourself when you got your ass kicked?”

“Please. They barely got the jump on me, and now I’ll be more alert than ever!”

“ _Barely got the jump on you_? What does barely mean to you? Because from where I’m standing, they overpowered you, and they did it pretty fucking easily.” 

“They did not.” She scoffed, but began feeling uneasy. Was it as obvious to everyone else as it was to her just how fucking weak she really felt?

“Oh, so I guess your broken ribs are from tying your shoes?” Bobby snarled, and it stung. All at once, she felt small and useless. Bobby thought she was small and useless. Her shoulders curled forward and her eyes watered. Bobby sighed. “Elizabeth–”

Elizabeth sniffed hard, trying to keep her tears from falling, but failed. She began to cry; tears, fat and hot, rolled down her cheeks. 

Bobby softened, stepped forward to grab hold of her again. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to– I just–”

She finally let him hug her, sank down onto the bed, and pressed her face into his shoulder. Hid, feeling like a little kid. “I’m just tired of being so goddamn careful. Everyone keeps looking at me like I’m a weak child and I just– it all makes me feel so helpless.” 

Bobby held her tighter. “I’m sorry. This sucks, I’m sorry.” 

They didn’t move, Bobby just held her, and they didn’t say anything else until he left.   
\--

On her first day back in the dojo, Sensei brought her up in front of the class. Her bruises were mostly healed, save for the long ones on her forearms and her ribs. 

“Two weeks ago, one of our own was attacked,” he said, pacing back and forth between her and the rest of the class. “Your enemies got her alone. Brutalized her. Tried to make us look weak.”

Elizabeth remained silent. Stared at the wall. Felt sort of sick. 

“Your enemies would like to believe that targeting one of your own will destroy your morale. Will they succeed?”

“No, Sensei!” 

“This is not an attack we can take lightly. When one of us is hurt, all of us are hurt. Our enemies believe that having a girl makes us weak. Are we weak?”

“No, Sensei!”

“Will we let this attack go unpunished?”

“No, Sensei!”

Elizabeth wondered how much of this was for the class, and how much of it was for her. Surely he could have done all this hoorah, go get the enemy rallying while she was gone. Could have marveled at their collective strength. 

“Will we wait for the tournament to punish our enemy for this egregious attack?” 

This was definitely for her. 

“No, Sensei!” A couple of voices rose higher than the rest. Kreese stopped pacing. Looked at her. 

“Ms. Nichols?”

“No, Sensei.”

“No what?” There was a cold gleam in his eye. She fought a shiver. 

“We will not wait to punish our enemies. We will show them our strength. Decisively.”

“Exactly. We do not wait to strike back. Fall in.”

She moved to her spot. Kreese did not let her spar that day. Or for the next week. 

As the security detail let up, training doubled down. Even after her ribs healed she spent most days aching. 

She sparred against every member of Cobra Kai twice. Johnny four times. Beat everyone except Johnny every time. Lost to Johnny twice. 

Bobby told her he thought she could make it all the way to finals. Kreese didn’t seem to harbor any such hopes. Johnny was their champion. 

She worked harder on karate than she ever had in her life. On days she didn’t have class, she forced the guys to spar with her on their days off, worked out until she felt like would collapse.

She wondered if she was ready. 

Then, two days before the tournament, Charlie showed up again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than I thought to write bc there were feelings. I'm bad at writing feelings bc I'm bad at feeling them! Luckily though, the next chapter is already written, so that'll be up tomorrow after some light editing.


	15. Striking Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's pretty short, but the next one will be much longer (All Valley time babey)

The gang had all gone to Golf N Stuff to blow off some steam before the big tournament: Bobby, Johnny, Tommy, Dutch, Jimmy, and Elizabeth, all with their girlfriends. Well, Elizabeth didn’t have a girlfriend, she was a girlfriend. But still. 

They were doing their normal thing, crowding around a table to eat corn dogs and pretzels and a whole host of foods Kreese would skin them alive for eating this close to competing while Ali regaled them with the tale of their cheer squad’s pitiful first attempt at a pyramid, and they were all cracking up. 

“Seriously! And I had _just_ gotten into position when Patty Davis sneezed, and we all–” and her face dropped. She looked like she had seen a ghost. 

“You all what?” Tommy asked, but she just shook her head and pointed. 

“Ali,” Elizabeth turned to look. “What’s– oh.”

“What?” Bobby asked. “What’s wrong?”

She couldn’t speak for a moment, eyes locked on him. On Charlie. Her stomach was lead. 

“Elizabeth?” Bobby asked.

She was gonna puke. 

“Ali, who is that?” Johnny asked in a less than discreet whisper-yell. 

“Charlie,” she said softly, and Elizabeth tensed just hearing the name. 

_You wanna fight like a boy?_

“Charlie?” She could hear the edge in Bobby’s voice. He turned to Elizabeth. “Like _the_ Charlie? The one who–” 

_Then you gotta learn to take a beating like a man_

She’d never felt fear quite like this before. Icy, heart-squeezing fear that thundered through her veins and rose up in her throat and threatened to choke her. Every instinct in her body told her it was time to bolt. 

“Elizabeth. Is that him?” Johnny asked, and she could hear the barely concealed rage. 

Her vocal cords weren’t working. Feet weren’t either. 

“Elizabeth.” Bobby said. 

She couldn’t say anything. Shouldn’t say anything. If they knew that was Charlie, _the_ Charlie, he wouldn’t be able to fight in the tournament, because he’d be in a body bag. And they wouldn’t get to fight, because they’d be in prison. For murder. 

Blood was rushing in her ears. Her heart was pounding, and she could feel the eyes of every person at their table on her. 

Bolting would be a really great option right now if her feet weren’t stuck to the ground. Shame. 

“Elizabeth,” Bobby said again, louder. “Is that him?”

As if by some sixth sense, Charlie turned and saw them. Her heart stopped. His smile was cruel and didn’t falter seeing her in a group. He lifted a hand and waved. 

“Yes,” she finally choked out. 

Elizabeth watched, like an out-of-body experience, as two things happened in quick succession. First, every single Cobra at the table jumped up (with the notable exception of Elizabeth, who thought she might be experiencing a panic attack) shouting profanities loudly enough that the people between them and Charlie got the memo to move out of the way. 

Then, every single one of their girlfriends (again, with the exception of Elizabeth) jumped up to pull them back. There was a lot of yelling and clamoring as various cobrettes (Tommy’s suggested name for the Cobra Kai girlfriends, which everyone immediately and vehemently vetoed for obvious reasons) tried to keep their respective boyfriends from committing a homicide. 

Well, except one. Being indisposed, Elizabeth didn’t have the chance to grab her boyfriend and make him see sense, and she watched as his fist connected with Charlie’s smug grin. The dumb prick hadn’t even moved. 

“Bobby!” Ali cried out, simultaneously exasperated and scared, and her brief moment of distraction gave Johnny enough leverage to break free of her hold and give Bobby a hand. And a foot.

Charlie’s grin dropped just before he did. Johnny and Bobby did not slow down. Her ribs ached sympathetically as Bobby kicked him hard in the side before picking him up for Johnny to kick hard in the sternum.

Ali rushed over, but even with all her bluster and future-scary-teacher severity, she couldn’t separate three boys who had a combined two feet on her. The other girls probably would have helped, but they were trying to wrangle their own boys. 

“Elizabeth, please!” Ali’s voice pierced through the haze, and everything clicked. 

She moved over the world around her molasses. Her hands caught Bobby under the arms and pulled him away, literally kicking and screaming. 

Without Bobby to prop him up, Charlie dropped, useless as a bag of rocks, and Ali managed to slide between his prostrate body and her boyfriend before his foot could connect. 

“Johnny, stop!” 

“Get out of the way,” he ordered roughly. Seemed determined not to come to his senses. 

“He can’t even stand! He’s had enough!” She insisted, moving with him as he tried to go around. 

“No mercy Ali! He attacked a Cobra! Do you know what that means?” 

“It means we go to the police, Johnny! But they can’t arrest a corpse for assault,” she told him. 

Elizabeth was still holding tightly onto Bobby, who had long given up on getting out of her grasp. He wasn’t any less tense, though. She could feel every muscle in his back, drawn taught and shaking. 

Past him, Charlie stirred. She watched as his eyes, surrounded by bloodied skin, fluttered open and met her own. He grinned. 

“Hey Nichols,” he said, and Bobby began to shake even harder. Elizabeth tightened her grip. “Your car was a piece of shit. Barely ran.”

 _Was._ She let go of Bobby. Caught him by the neck of his jacket and flung him back before he could get to the lump of a boy on the ground. 

Before anyone could process what was happening, Elizabeth was forward and on him. She knelt, pressing her knee into his sternum. Got right up in his face, grabbed him by the chin, palm over his mouth and nails digging into his cheeks. She savored the look of fear in his eyes. 

“I am going to enjoy beating the shit out of you on Saturday,” voice low and angry, but even. Scarily even. 

She spit on him, watched as his eyes screwed shut to protect themselves. It oozed down his forehead. 

Ali’s hand landed gently on her back. She stood, heard Charlie’s gasp for air. The crowd that gathered around them was whispering like if they spoke at a normal volume they might set the Cobras off. 

She ignored them and looked at Bobby instead. His anger melted into something else, a question. Her answering nod was enough. He took her hand and they walked back to the table. 

Everyone was still standing, but the guys had managed to settle down. They stood in tense silence for a beat. 

Elizabeth was the first to speak. “What say we go for a drive?” 

Bobby’s arm came around her shoulders. “Great idea.”

She looked over at Johnny, and he nodded. Slipped an arm around his own girlfriend. 

They gathered their things, threw away their trash, and took off. 

She was ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> justice for Juno the car. And also Elizabeth ig
> 
> I'm not sure if I'm giving Elizabeth enough of a personality, maybe I'll delve deeper into her background later? idk lmk what you think. 
> 
> Come say hi to me on [tumblr!](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/cobra-sigh)


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